LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 






Shelf J./U-" 



I. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




a S 



D 



CENTENARY 



MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 



DELIVERED AT MISSIONARY CONFERENCES ApTD ELSE- 
WHERE, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE^^MER- 
ICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION, 
IN THE YEARS 1S92 AND 1893. 



" Christianity is missionary if it is anything." 

Dr. John A. Broadus. 



PHILADELPHIA: Lj / YS^^f V 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, * 

1420 Chestnut Street. 



\%<^T 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1893, by the 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



The Library 
of Congress 

WASHINGTON 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction . . . 5 

I. Christianity Essentially Missionary. 

John A. Broadus, D. D., LL.D. . . . 11 

II. The Author of Missions. 

Rev. W. R. L. Smith, D. D., . . . .28 

III. The Horizon of Christ. 

Rev. W. H. P. Faunce, 36 

IV. Motives to Missions Among the Heathen. 

Henry E. Robins, D. D., LL. D., . . . 46 

V. The Home Relation to Foreign Missions. 

Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D. D., ... 57 

VI. Hindrances at Home to the Work of Foreign 
Missions. 
George W. Northrup, D. D., LL. D.,- . . 67 

VII. The Appropriate Missionary Giving. 

Rev. C H. Moscrip, D. D., . . . .89 

VIII. The Cultivation of Personal Responsibility. 

Rev. 0. P. Eaches, D. D 99 

IX. The Sphere of a Local Church. 

Rev. Lemuel C. Barnes, 112 

3 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



X. Separated for Mission Work. 

Augustus H. Strong, D. D., LL. D., . . 125 

XL Endued with Power. 

Rev. C. J. Baldwin, D. D., . . . .133 

XII. The Cake for God's Prophet First. 

Rev. John Humpstone, D. D., . . . 149 

XIII. The Impelling Vision. 

Rev. Philip L. Jones, 160 

XIV. To Save One We Must Save All. 

Lemuel Moss, D. D., LL. D., . . . .173 

XV. The Influence of a Century of Missions on 
Christian Theology. 
Alvah Hovey, D. D., LL. D., . . . .190 

XVI. The Enrichment of Christianity Through its 

Missions. 

Rev. Frederick L. Anderson, . . . 201 

XVII. The Apostolic Ambition. 

Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D 217 



INTRODUCTION. 



The missionary conferences before which the following 
selected addresses were given were unique meetings. 
They originated in a deep conviction that if missions are 
to be genuinely rather than perfunctorily extended, the 
biblical and spiritual principles, out of which true mis- 
sions spring, must be freshly and repeatedly studied. 

Though much employed in connection with the late 
endeavors of the Missionary Union to enlarge its work 
and increase its income, these conferences sprang from no 
secondary motive. They were, primarily, a call to a 
renewed study of the spiritual life and its practical corol- 
laries. They afforded also an opportunity for such study 
and prayer as are impracticable at mere anniversary 
meetings. Such study and prayer we hold to be basal to 
any real advance in the method of extending Christ's 
work in the earth. Any attempt to deepen missionary 
zeal that overlooks the essential condition of a deepened 
spirituality must ever prove abortive and futile. 

In the range of thought and principles traversed in 
these numerous meetings, held in representative sections 
of the country, there was, of course, great variety of ex- 
pression. One ringing keynote, however, characterized 
all the discussions. The keynote which prevailed was 
this : that true missions involve on the part of Christ-s 
disciples a practical incarnation of the Christ life and 
Christ teaching among peoples historically ignorant of 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

the original incarnation, and so far lost to its reality, 
blessing, and power. Such a re-incarnation Paul had in 
mind when he said, " For me to live is Christ " ; i. e., 
" For me to live is for Christ to live." It is not enough 
for the missionary to bear a formal system of truth, how- 
ever divine, to the heathen. He must so hold and carry 
that truth as that he becomes the personal embodiment 
of it. The truth thus lives — the Word incarnate — in him. 

Accordingly, as we thus conceive of missions, our 
notion of three things, lying at the root of all, will be 
vitally affected : our notion of motive to missions, our no- 
tion of individual consecration to missions, and our notion 
of the form of effort in which missions are to be carried on. 

Our thought of the motive to missions will be modified. 
The motive to missions will be seen to be interior and 
vital, instead of being external and formal. It has been 
common to speak of " motives to missions " as if they 
were several, and based on something without us. 
Advocates are wont to appeal for missions on various 
external grounds : such as the forlorn state of the heathen, 
their ignorance, their poverty, their wretchedness, here 
and hereafter, etc. These considerations are, properly 
speaking, not motives at all, but rather occasions y in view 
of which something deeper, and within the soul, acts. 
This something, which is deeper, is motive. Truly 
speaking, the real motive is always within ; so within as 
that it is of the very deepest life of the man. The 
motive thus becomes motor , charged with the very life of 
God. It acts as God would act, and for the same reason, 
because it is of its nature so to do. It exists and operates 
quite independently of the outward conditions of men, 
just as God's love does. It springs, like the rays of the 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

sun, from deep internal fires. It runs as the streams run 
down into the sea, because the hidden fountains impel, 
and because the moral gravitation of the spheres induce. 
The true source of this motive in the missionary is the 
Christ formed within him, " the new man," " the second 
Adam," " the Lord from heaven," who is conforming the 
disciple to his own image, and thus as a consequence 
reaching and saving mankind. 

Our notion of individual consecration to missions will 
be elevated, in the light of our conception of what real 
missions involve. It has been common in some quarters 
to speak of Christian work as so much " done for God," 
instead of so much work " with God," or better still, as 
the out- working of the divine life, " which inwardly 
worketh itself mightily in us." l Christian service in- 
volves more than the mere conscious labor of one person- 
ality rendered to another — its quality and value deter- 
mined mainly by the personal force of the individual. 
Such a conception may indeed save one's metaphysics, 
but at the expense of one's Bible. The true missionary 
— the kind whom these missionary conferences have 
sought to recuit — must be more than a mere agent for 
God. He is to be, in some profound sense, a miniature 
reproduction of the Christ; one in whom Christ is 
formed ; one who can say with the apostle, " Always 
bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that 
the life also of Jesus" (namely, the resurrection life), 
" may be manifested in our body." Thus the natural, 
metaphysical personality in the biblical thought is 
sunk in the mystical personality, dual indeed, incident 
to the re-incarnation of the Christ in the missionary, 
i Greek, e„e Py ea>, Col. 1 : 29; Eph. 2 : 2; 1 Thess. 2 : 13. 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

Of such a personality mere philosophy may take no 
account, but of this the New Testament takes special 
account. It is, perhaps, Paul's fundamental, evangelical 
conception that the old ego is dead and buried, and then 
risen again in a new ego. It is the essential meaning of 
baptism on the subjective side. " I am crucified with 
Christ : nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
me : . . who loved me, and gave himself for me." It is this 
ego who is the essential Christian ; and such a Christian 
is always, in turn, by virtue of his new nature, the mis- 
sionary according to Christ. With this conception of the 
missionary in mind, he who is seen by the church going 
forth on his perilous, or self-denying Christ errand, is 
to be regarded, to all intents and purposes, as the Christ 
himself on his own continuous mission of seeking the 
lost. " He that heareth you heareth me ; and he that 
despiseth you despise th me ; and he that despiseth me 
despiseth Him that sent me." The true Christian, or the 
true church, will, therefore, no more think of being indif- 
ferent to the welfare of the missionary than he would be to 
the welfare of Christ himself, were he still upon the earth. 
If missions are thus conceived as the issue of the 
Christ life continually re-incarnated in the church, our 
notion of the form of mission effort to be rendered will be 
correspondingly transformed. We suspect that it is com- 
mon for the church in its missioning to think of itself as 
going forth to gain adherents, to recruit communicants, to 
augment itself and thus ultimately, of course, to enrich 
heaven. It is possible for such a conception uncon- 
sciously to glide into a refined form of self seeking. 
Such propagation of Christianity readily becomes mere 
propagandism, the primary aim of which is usually to 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

get rather than to give. Such a form of religion thus 
becomes an end to itself. This is one of the cardinal 
errors of Rome, which, when finished, is paganism and 
idolatry. Such is not the form of missions after Christ. 
The essence of Christianity is grace — pure giving — some- 
thing for nothing. God's desire for this lost world is 
that he may gratuitously impart himself to it. The 
Divine love is but the infinite yearning of God to impart 
his own form of blessed living to his rational creatures. 
To compass this it stops at no cost. Hence the atone- 
ment — " the Lamb slain from before the foundation of 
the world" — a constitutional expression of the Divine 
nature in its infinite love and holiness reaching after men ; 
not something done "to make God willing" to save. 
Hence, also, Christ's characteristic expression of himself, 
" I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might 
have it more abundantly." Hence, also, the commission 
which Christ gave to the twelve, "As a gift (gratui- 
tously) ye have received, as a gift (gratuitously) impart." * 
That is to say, the church is gratuitously to impart the 
grace and life which it has received on precisely the same 
principles on which God gratuitously imparts grace and 
life to it. The missionary, accordingly, goes to the 
heathen primarily not that he may get, but that he may 
give. He goes not that he may get even a convert, not 
that he may win a church, not even that he may win 
trophies for Christ, precious as all these are ; he goes that 
he may impart his own spiritual blessedness to others. 
He is not fit to go, nor is he divinely commissioned to go, 
until he has this blessedness in overflowing measure to 
impart. He goes as a spiritual capitalist, with measure- 
^Iatt. rO : 8; Bible Union Version, Imp. Edition. 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

less resources within and behind him ; resources not for 
investment with a view of return to himself, but re- 
sources that he may give away outright, looking for no 
return to himself except such as God's grace may be 
pleased of his own good pleasure to bestow. Trophies, 
indeed, will be won, compensations will come, enrichment 
of heaven will certainly ensue ; but all these, and vastly 
more, will be returned into the bosom of the missionary, 
incidentally to his own self-giving, on the principle of the 
divine paradox, "He that loseth his life, the same shall 
save it." (" Save it alive," " Give it a living birth." *) 
The more the missionary imparts, the greater will his 
riches become with which to continue to give ; the more 
he loses the more will he save alive. " It is more blessed 
to give than to receive." This, the crown of the beati- 
tudes, is his, and it is his only, who has entered into the 
experience and habit of the Prince of givers. 

When such a conception of missions as we have indi- 
cated shall come to prevail in the habitual thought and 
life of the church, how different will be her working 
attitude to the missions of the world, whether near or 
far ! She will regard them, not as something extraneous 
to herself; something optional, which she may engage in 
or not at pleasure ; not as a mere annex to her working 
apparatus, but rather as something constitutional to her 
very life, her new being, as they are constitutional to God 
himself, and to Jesus Christ, the Head of the church, and 
to the Holy Ghost, whose indwelling in us, as in a living 
temple, is the sole efficiency of all Christian under- 
takings. Henry C. Mabie. 

Boston, Sept., 1893. 

1 Rotherham's Version. 



CENTENARY MISSIONARY .ADDRESSES. 



i. 

CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 1 

JOHN A. BROADUS, D. D., LL. D., 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky. 

What was the most audacious word that was ever 
spoken in human language ? Well, I think it was when 
a young mechanic from an obscure village in an out-of- 
the-way and despised part of the ancient Roman Empire, 
surrounded by a company of followers, with a small inner 
circle, after a few years of wandering about that little 
country and talking to people, lifted up his voice and 
said : u Go, disciple all the nations to me." To him — 
all the nations — it would have been out of all question ; 
but you will please remember that he, whom I have 
spoken of with such terms of limitation, had not long 
before that risen from the dead, as he had predicted he 
would do, and not long after that was to rise to the throne 
of God. He was a missionary himself. He was the first 
Christian missionary. God sent his Son into the world, 
not to judge the world, but that the world through 
him, might be saved. He was sent. He was a missionary 
from heaven to earth. He had a very short period of 
labor — some three years, more or less, and that is all. 

1 Printed from a stenographic report. 

11 



12 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

He confined it, for the most part, to the little country in 
which he lived. Yet there were glimpses of something 
more. The only occasions I remember on which he 
expressed especial commendation of faith were when he 
commended the faith of a heathen Roman captain, and 
said : " I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel," 
and when on another occasion, in reference to a heathen 
woman in Phoenicia, he said : " O woman, great is thy 
faith." So when, two or three days before the end of his 
brief career, one of his followers came to him and told 
him that there were some Greeks who wanted to see him, 
he said : " I . . . will draw all men unto me." 

He sent out his immediate followers on a brief mission. 
Some people have taken the instructions of that mission 
and have applied them without the necessary changes, 
without the changes he himself distinctly referred to 
afterward, as if they were the law for all missionary 
work ; but this was a little mission of a few brief weeks, 
or a few months, in the little district where they lived, 
where their own people would take care of them. He 
told them himself before the end, that things were to be 
otherwise with them. He sent them out at first on a 
brief mission. But now — probably it was when the five 
hundred were present, though we are not sure of that — 
the eleven of the inner circle were present on a mountain 
in Galilee, and he said : " Go ! Go ! " Before that he 
said : " Go not unto the Gentiles." Now he says : " Go 
unto all the world. Go, disciple all the nations." It was 
a missionary business. It was a missionary idea. From 
the beginning it has been missionary, if it has been any- 
thing. And very soon after that he did another remark- 
able thing about it. He appeared in the clouds of heaven, 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 13 

amid a great light, and spoke in a voice which, to the rest 
of the company, was but a strange sound, but which 
entered into the mind and soul of one man who had been 
the leading oppcser and persecutor of him and his fol- 
lowers, persecuting him in their persons, and bade him 
become a missionary, chose him to be the leading mis- 
sionary in the work of spreading the knowledge of him 
and his salvation. 

What does the word apostle mean ? All those present 
who have dabbled in Greek at all know that apostolos 
means missionary. That was the very idea of the thing. 
He names them missionaries. We make a distinction, 
but the distinction is not there. And this man was to be 
the head missionary. He was a man who would be use- 
ful anywhere. He seems to us peculiarly suited to be 
useful at home. Why, when the Lord appeared to him 
in a trance in the temple, and said : " Get thee hence," 
this young man, though he had never been wanting in 
devotion, remonstrated, thought he knew better. You say 
that is very strange. I doubt if there is a man on this 
platform who hasn't had more or less of just the same 
sort of experience. Sometimes the Lord seems, by his 
providence and by inner admonitions, to be indicating to 
a man that he ought to do a certain thing, and yet he 
thinks he knows best. This man, in his trance, said : 
" Lord, I am the very man to stay at home. They know 
I persecuted thy servants. When the blood of thy first 
martyr was shed, I was standing near and held the gar- 
ments. I am the very man. When I come to them they 
listen to me." He said : " Hush ! Get out ! I will send 
thee far hence to the heathen." A missionary, yes, a 
foreign missionary, a missionary to the heathen. 
2 



14 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

He loved his own people ; and does anybody suppose 
that a missionary doesn't love his own people? Ask one 
of these men who have sorrowed and sighed in a foreign 
land for the sound of their native language and the sight 
of the old faces they loved in their homes. Ask them if 
they don't love their own people. That isn't what it 
means. He loved his own people, went to his own people 
wherever he found them and tried to do them good. And 
still he was a foreign missionary. In spite of all this 
adaptation to stay at home he was to be a foreign mission- 
ary. And now I pray you to note this : That as a foreign 
missionary, Paul the apostle, not only did the great work 
w^e know he accomplished in the spread of the gospel 
among those who were heathen, but he actually did, I do 
believe, far more for his ow 7 n people than he could have 
done if he had stayed at home and confined his labors to 
them. Dr. Morehouse, do you agree with me ? (Yes.) As 
a foreign missionary he did more for his own people, the 
Jews, than if he had stayed at home. 

The case is not singular. It brings to my mind imme- 
diately Adoniram Judson. I never think of him without 
emotion. I remember he was the first man to whom I 
ever made a gift that amounted to anything. When six- 
teen years old, as assistant in a school, I gave a dollar 
and a half to the foreign missionary collection, and 
thought about Judson when I gave it. He was my mis- 
sionary and my hero in those days ; and I remember 
when the preacher came and preached two sermons and 
turned the student of medicine toward the idea that he 
would have to give it up and be a minister, the passage 
that moved me most of all was that about Judson. If he 
had staved at home he would have been a very useful 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. id 

Congregational minister somewhere in New England, in 
the Old South Church or somewhere ; or a very useful 
professor in a New England college, but I never should 
have heard of him in my youth. Now, Adoniram Judson 
is a great electric light that shines all over the land, and 
a star in the firmament of our modern Christianity that 
shines all over the world. How much more he has done 
for his own people than if he had stayed at home. Don't 
you be afraid of the loss that will come to our own Chris- 
tianity from giving up the choicest of our young men 
and the fairest of our girls, if they feel moved of God to 
go hence to the heathen. The Lord knows what he is 
about, and do you take care hpw you resist the leadings 
of this providence and the leadings of this faith, for self 
or for those you love. 

Christianity, I say, was missionary from the start. 
That is the very idea of the thing ; that is the genius of 
the machine. It wasn't madevto run on any nairow 
gauge. You will need a broad-gauge track for it to run 
on. It wasn't made to be run on any narrow principles. 
It isn't intended that it should run around in a circle, and 
never get far away from where it started. Christianity is 
missionary if it is anything. 

Why did it ever cease to be so ? Well, for a long time 
the early followers of the Founder of Christianity were 
missionaries. What devotion they showed ! Nobody to 
help them. The government all against them, persecut- 
ing them if it took any notice of them at all. Again and 
again they perished by hundreds and by thousands. Far 
and wide they went to spread Christianity, and all the 
glory of its early history was its missions ; and, thank 
God; that early movement did not cease till missionaries 



16 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

from Greece or missionaries from Italy reached your an- 
cestors or mine, who were downright heathen. And while 
they had some good qualities,— -these Germans, and most 
of us are descended from that race, — while they had some 
very noble qualities, as Tacitus describes and Caesar 
mentions, yet they were heathen, real pagans. If it 
hadn't been for some people in Greece and Italy who 
believed it was worth while to carry the gospel to the 
heathen, what would have become of all our European 
and American civilization ? What would have come to 
you and me? Those people, thank God, believed in 
carrying the gospel to the heathen. Those people, thank 
God, didn't give up if some of them were killed. They 
kept on until they won our ancestors as triumphs of mis- 
sionary work. 

What made the thing gradually wear out ? Well, it 
w T as this way. They wouldn't let Christianity stay in its 
primitive simplicity as a movement for preaching to indi- 
viduals, regenerating them, winning them by teaching, 
public and private, and by example and personal influ- 
ence. They became dissatisfied with that. This Christi- 
anity carried its missionary labors over to a place w r here 
there arose in the Roman Empire a very skillful politi- 
cian indeed, who thought it would be a good plan to take 
the new religion and make it a plank in his political 
platform. His name was Constantine. He made it a 
plank in his platform and he triumphed with it. He 
undertook to patronize Christianity, and though Chris- 
tianity could get along with all the opposition of politics, 
somehow it didn't get along with the friendship of poli- 
ticians ; and I don't know but that it has sometimes 
happened over here, right here, that where religion and 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 17 

politics go hand in hand, politics is mighty apt to get the 
upper hand. It was so then. They Judaized Chris- 
tianity and they Romanized Christianity, and that took 
t l p foreign missionary element largely out of it. They 
< ciaized Christianity by introducing the idea of conse- 
crated houses and sacrifices, and all splendid ceremonies 
that had religious power. They brought in the notion 
that the two ceremonies of the Christian religion which 
had the minimum of ceremony, were both of them to 
have some strange, mystical nature, by which people were 
to be regenerated by the first ceremony, and people were 
afterward to be saved by the second. That was Judaizing 
Christianity ; it was taking away the idea of appealing 
by instruction, appealing to the mind and conscience, and 
substituting an appeal by ceremonies and sacred externals 
and all that sort of thing. 

And then the otter thing was Romanizing Christianity. 
The Romans had such a genius for government that they 
were not only the greatest of the ancient empires that 
lasted the longest and ruled the most powerfully, but 
when they got hold of Christianity they infused their ge- 
nius for government into the organization of Christianity, 
that lasts to this day as the wonder of this world. But 
it wasn't primitive Christianity. It was the idea that 
you have got to rule over people to make Christians of 
them ; you have got to organize and govern and make 
them Christians ; and if they won't, you will make them 
suffer for it, if they won't be Christians and be the kind 
of Christians you want them to be. All done by a grand, 
centralized Roman organization, and the genius of 
Christianity forgotten. And so it went on for many 
centuries, this sorrowful history ; but it seems to me that 



18 CEXTENAKY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

is the history of the whole matter. That is the way the 
foreign missionary idea disappeared. Men undertook, 
century after century, more or less, some work in the 
countries around these Romans, but it never accomplished 
very much. Or the Jesuits, organized particularly for 
that purpose, ' did wonders, prodigies of magnificent 
devotion, for which they deserve all eulogy and honor. 
But then, when they got to China and got to Japan, it 
was to make Christians of the heathen by a ceremony 
and then to keep them Christians by another ceremony, 
and that wasn't Christianity. No wond?r they left such 
a bad name in China and Japan that when the enemies 
of Christianity in those countries want to talk against 
your missionaries, the worst thing they can say is : " Don't 
you believe that these missionaries are different from 
those that came here three centuries ago." That is the 
worst thing they can say against the missionaries to-day ; 
and yet the men who did it were men of noble devotion. 

And now, what has caused the difference? Well, I 
think the reason why in the last one hundred years, amid 
a thousand imperfections and ten thousand shortcomings, 
the reason why things are becoming better and looking 
really hopeful is that there is something like a return to 
the idea of the original Christianity, to the notion that 
you have got to make Christians of people, not by force, 
but by instruction, by persuasion and conviction, by in- 
fluence and example; making Christians of individual 
people who can think and understand you, not by cere- 
monies, not by compulsions, but just in the old-fashioned, 
original way. 

And that is true not alone of the little handful of de- 
spised people in England a hundred years ago — you don't 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 19 

know how they do despise them there. I don't know but 
what I will tell you a story. I remember twenty years 
ago being the guest of a London merchant at his resi- 
dence in the country. He told me With some pride that 
he was lord of the manor. The Englishman likes to be 
lord of anything. We were playing croquet, the ladies, 
my companions, himself and some others, and the wife 
came out and sat on the rustic seat, and in an interval of 
the game I sat by her side and took up her book. It 
was a German book. She said she had brought over a 
teacher from Hanover, and was learning German. It 
was Schiller, and I turned over the pages pointing out 
some of the poems I admired. She said innocently after- 
ward to one of the young ladies : " This gentleman is a 
Baptist preacher. What, a Baptist preacher know Ger- 
man ? Why, I thought they were all shoemakers or 
blacksmiths." 

The name we honor to-night was that of a shoemaker ; 
he called himself a cobbler. They were a handful of de- 
spised people, but they all took hold. It seems to you 
and to me that they had put Christianity on its original 
foundation, and went at the thing in that way ; and then 
a great many other good people who brought over to 
America the traditions of the English establishment, of 
the Scottish establishment, or who spread in America the 
traditions of another establishment in the most celebrated 
part of our country, have gradually taken up many of 
those same ideas ; they seem to have gone about trying 
to convert people as individuals, preaching to them, and 
instructing them, and praying for them until they have 
done an amount of work in foreign missions which ought 
to stir us. All honor to the missionarv work of the 



20 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

Congregationalists, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, and 
others. But I do think they have been useful just in 
proportion as they have returned, more or less consciously 
returned, to the same primitive views of Christianity and 
kind of work that were followed by the little despised 
handful in England a hundred years ago. 

And now I want to say this about it. It was the 
thought that occurred to me when 1 was asked to be here, 
and after saving that I could not come, could not tear 
myself away from busy work, — then, looking at the list 
of engagements at home, found it was possible to stand 
in this pulpit once more. It was this thought that 
occurred to me. It was the English Baptists who started 
this idea of the centennial observance, and then some 
Americans got hold of it ; and now, in all parts, wherever 
there are any Baptists, they are working at this thing. 
I don't think we need to worry ourselves about organic 
unity ; let Providence take care of that. We are Bap- 
tists together. I believe that means that we are trying 
to illustrate and retain original Christianity ; the idea 
that men are to be made Christians by conversion and 
not by baptizing them, and that people are to be kept 
Christians by instructing them in the truth and not by 
ceremonies. We are Baptists because we think that is 
the genius of Christianity, and we are trying to maintain 
it ; and I call upon all of you who are here to-night : 
Be glad if, in the providence of God, you have been led 
to be Baptists, and try to see more clearly than ever 
before, how in the New Testament the very idea of 
Christianity is set forth, try to get all these original, 
primitive conceptions of Christianity. Then, mark you, 
don't get fussing about returning to the New Tes- 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 21 

tament ideas of ordination and church government, and 
stop there, and fail to return to New Testament ideas of 
missions. The Baptist who stands up for believers' bap- 
tism, and for the independence of the churches and all 
those things, which I believe in, and then isn't hearty in 
the work of missions — well, the fact is, he is no Baptist 
at all. He doesn't deserve to call himself that. Let 
him go to reading his New Testament over again. 

And I, — who live far away from here, yet feel somehow 
curiously at home in this very place, and look around on 
many faces of those I honor and love, — I come from 
what everybody knows is the portion of the country 
where we have lots of Baptists, and can't get much out 
of them, but have grand expectations for them in the 
future. Now, I say here to-night, let us American Bap- 
tists, and English Baptists, and all Baptists, make this 
centennial celebration the occasion of realizing that we 
are all Baptists together ; Baptists joined together by com- 
mon ideas and a grand common work, as brethren in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

And so, what is the spirit of the whole matter from my 
point of view? That Christianity is missionary, or it is 
nothing at all ; that Christian people who are not mission- 
ary lack one of the original, fundamental, essential, indis- 
pensable elements of genuine Christianity. Did you ever 
know any of those Baptists they call "Hard Shells"? They 
are the delight of the newspapers, you know ; they can get 
so many jokes about the " hard shell." I have known some 
of those people, some of them intimately, who were, from 
their point of view, as deeply devout in their feelings, as 
honestly trying to serve God, in their way, as any people 
I ever knew or expect to know. But they had got hold 



22 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of one side of Christianity, and because they couldn't 
reconcile with it the other side, its world-wide invitations 
to everybody and the duty of sending invitations to any- 
body, they stayed on their side and tried to live consist- 
ently according to their conviction ; and the result has 
been that slowly, slowly they disappeared, until they 
hardly live at all now except to be the joke of the news- 
papers. Though they were dead in earnest, they had a 
one-sided Christianity, a half-way Christianity, and it 
was bound to decay ; and our Christianity will flourish 
just in proportion as it is missionary, in proportion as we 
are interested in the great missionary idea, which is as 
wide as the world or it is nothing. Just in proportion as 
we are working for the salvation of mankind, with gen- 
uine interest, with hearty effort, with true sacrifice, just 
in that proportion everything that is nearer to us will 
flourish also. 

But didn't the Saviour say, " beginning at Jerusalem " ? 
Repentance and remission of sins should be preached, be- 
ginning at Jerusalem. And doesn't that mean that I 
ought to begin at Louisville, and you ought to begin at 
Boston, and these ought to begin at Brooklyn and New 
York, and some other people ought to begin at Smoke- 
town, and everybody should begin at his home and work, 
and work out in widening circles ? I trow not, because 
not one of these eleven lived at Jerusalem. It didn't 
mean they should begin at home — their home wasn't at 
Jerusalem. They would have to begin in various parts 
of Judea. There was only one who lived anywhere near 
Jerusalem, and he was Judas, the traitor. Why should 
they begin at Jerusalem ? Because at Jerusalem the 
great events of the Christian religion had taken place, 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 23 

and if they hadn't made some converts at Jerusalem, they 
couldn't have gone to foreign parts and expected people 
there to believe these events at Jerusalem if nobody there 
believed in them. That is one reason why they should 
make some converts there. But a more important reason : 
They should begin at Jerusalem because Christianity was 
the offshoot of the old religion of Israel, and Christiani- 
ty's offers were to be made first to Israel. It was the 
privilege of the chosen people, the one remaining privi- 
lege, — all their forfeited privileges passed away, — that 
Christianity should be the power of God unto salvation, 
as Paul, the foreign missionary, said, " to the Jew first." 
Beginning at Jerusalem means beginning at the Jews, 
and didn't mean beginning at Smoketown or at Brooklyn. 
If you want to make Christianity flourish, take hold 
of it according to the largeness of its true conception. 
Interest yourself and your children and your church in 
saving the people on the other side of the round world 
and then you can get them to take hold of things near 
home. That is history; that is not speculation. That is 
history, that is experience, and everybody that will try it 
will find it is so more and more. You remember how 
Archimedes said when he was finding out the wonderful 
powers of the lever : " Give me a place to stand on, and 
with a lever I will move the world." Oh, men and 
women, foreign missions are the place to stand on for 
Christianity to do its wort for the human race. Get your 
church practically interested in foreign missions, so that the 
members will pray for foreign missions in their prayer meet- 
ings, and give to foreign missions with great delight, and 
then when the home missionary secretary appeals to them, 
he will say : " Now that you have done some part of y our 



24 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

duty in sending it to the Chinese, you will do something 
for the heathen nearer home." He couldn't possibly be 
in a better position to reach them than just that. Get 
your people to give to foreign missions and pray for 
foreign missions and be willing to let their own sons and 
daughters, God bless them, go to the heathen, if they are 
called, and then your people will be willing to help our 
educational enterprises, and our publication enterprises, 
and everything we ought to do nearer home. It is the 
place to stand your lever on to move the whole business. 
And now I have just four things to add. The Founder 
of Christianity said, — it is the only time that I remember 
his urging people to pray for a particular object; he 
often encouraged his followers to pray, but I do not 
recollect that ever, except in that case, he named a 
particular object of prayer : — " The harvest truly is 
plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore 
the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers 
into his harvest." Oh ! isn't it strange, that the only 
special subject of prayer that he named, as far as I can 
recollect, at least, is so seldom heard in our pulpits? 
Well, that is the way it is where I live, — I don't know, 
maybe it is otherwise here, — so seldom heard in our 
Sunday devotion, so seldom heard in our Sunday-school 
classes, so seldom heard in our prayer meetings, so seldom 
in our family worship, in our private devotion. Oh ! 
men and women, let us turn ove*r a new leaf about that. 
Turn it over. Now, over it goes ! Over now ! Now, 
begin again. Paste that leaf down; it isn't pleasant to 
look at. The Saviour said : " Pray ye the Lord of the 
harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." 
I live among young ministers. I have some occasion to 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 25 

feel sympathy for them and know something about their 
trials, besides having possibly recollections that are 
personal ; and I tell you there is great need for special 
prayer, for special blessing of the Spirit of God upon 
young men who ought to be ministers. A great many ob- 
stacles are in their way, a great many temptations, a great 
many discouragements. Look at the sacrifices that many 
a young fellow has to make. He has dreamed a dream 
of ambition, and he has got to give it all up and consent 
to choke it all down ; and he leaves his own people, and 
he is thinking now whether it isn't his duty to leave the 
land he loved so well, and he doesn't know — Oh ! he 
doesn't know whether Miss Lucy at home will be willing 
to go with him. Poor fellow ! Now don't smile at 
him overmuch, because it is a reality. He has got these 
things to think about, and then it is so easy for him to 
say, — we all get up a great deal of mock modesty when 
we don't want to do something, — " Oh ! w'ell, if I 
were a better Christian ; I feel so unworthy." That is 
just an excuse for not doing your duty half the time, and 
most of the other half. It is so easy for the young 
fellow to say : " I am afraid I haven't enough strength 
of character ; I am not good enough to be a foreign mis- 
sionary." No, don't laugh at him. Pray for him. 
Pray that the Spirit of God will make things clear to his 
mind. And God be thanked that a man can see his 
duty after struggles, it may be, and darkness; a man can 
see the path of duty open before him, and seem to hear the 
voice saying : " This is the way. Walk ye in it." God 
be thanked, a man can come to see his duty. Pray for 
your young men, that they may come to see their duty in 
the work of putting laborers at home and abroad in this 
3 



26 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

harvest that still waves over all the earth, and still the 
laborers are few. 

And then, if we pray in that way, we ought to be doing 
something, we ought to be glad to encourage what we 
think ; if they give us the opportunity, we ought to be 
glad to support them. You have heard the saying, " We 
will go down into the mine, but you must hold the. rope." 
Let us, as pastors and as people, look to our end of the 
rope. It is pretty hard on these young fellows if one 
not only has to decide to make all the personal sacrifices 
that are necessary to go ; but then the Missionary Board 
is in debt every year and it don't know whether it can 
send him. What a difficulty he is in. Look out for 
your end of the rope while you pray that many may be 
called into the ministry of the gospel and into the work 
of missions. 

And the other two things. Jesus said^ — I always stop 
there and ponder, — " Other men labored and ye are 
entered into their labors." Ah ! a great part of the joy 
of this work of spreading Christianity has come from 
what the men of the past have sown. We sow, blessed 
be God, what the men of the future shall gather. We 
don't stand alone in this world. We are part of a great 
host that has come out of the past and is moving now 
into the future, but it is God's work and it is going to 
succeed sooner or later. What a comfort it is to a man 
when he can be satisfied that his work is bound to suc- 
ceed. That his work is bound to succeed ! Bound to 
succeed, or the pillars of heaven would fall ! Bound to 
succeed, or the word of the Eternal would be forfeited ! 
A work, as Judson said, that is as sure as the promises 
of God. 



CHRISTIANITY ESSENTIALLY MISSIONARY. 27 

When Jesus said : " Go, disciple all the nations/' he 
added, " Lo, I am with you all the days/'" That is what 
it means. " Alway 9} isn't strong enough. It is emphat- 
ically, " all the days." " Lo, I am with you all the days, 
unto the end of the world." He promised that he would 
be with his people in carrying out his great command, 
that he would be with them all the days, through all 
generations and all centuries, and with each of them all 
the days of his life. Oh, my brother, yes, we shall be 
far apart before long, but he will be with you and he will 
be with me. He will be with you. We are growing 
old ; he will be with us as long as our days shall last. 
He will be with you who are young all the days of your 
life, if they are days spent in carrying out this, his great 
commandment. In days of joys and days of sorrow, in 
days of sickness and health, in the days of discourage- 
ment and in the days of high hope and rejoicing and 
gratitude. Oh, pastor, when you step across the threshold 
of some home of poverty and sickness, try to see how the 
shadowy form and the kindly face steps across with you. 
Oh, missionary, when you stand to preach in a strange 
language, so far from the home you love, so far from 
those loved ones you would so like to see again, try and 
think that he who sent you is with you there and will be 
with you all the days, all the days. 



II. 

THE AUTHOR OF MISSIONS. 

REV. W. R. L. SMITH, D. D., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

One of the most remarkable periods in the history of 
the kingdom of God is the thirty years immediately 
following the ascension of our Lord. During that time 
the gospel was preached among the leading nations and 
in the great centres of civilization. The middle wall of 
partition, that for long centuries had divided Jew and 
Gentile, was broken down ; and the body of the New 
Testament Scriptures was almost completed. These 
achievements are marvelous in our eyes. They changed 
the currents of the world's history. Who originated and 
consummated this work ? To whom does the credit of 
the mighty spiritual movement belong? Not to Peter 
and Paul. Neither wanted to do what he did. As w r ell 
might we ascribe the splendid edifice to the agency of the 
trowel, the hammer, and the saw. 

Those are significant words at the beginning of the 
Acts. Luke says that in a former treatise he recounted 
the things that Jesus began to do and to teach. The im- 
plication is that in the present treatise he will narrate 
what Jesus continued to do. Ten days after the ascension 
the thrilling scenes of Pentecost are enacted. Peter rises 
to explain. The Lord has received the promise of the 
Father, the Holy Spirit, and through him these august 
events have been wrought. Until Jesus comes again, the 
28 



THE AUTHOR OF MISSIONS. 29 

Holy Spirit is to be his representative. Not unto 
apostles, then, but unto the Holy Spirit belongs the 
honor. Such is the uniform testimony of all the holy 
men who participated in the work of the thirty eventful 
years. The Acts of the Apostles are more truly the acts 
of the divine Spirit. 

His authorship is expressed in the fact that he was the 
enabling energy of the human workers employed. 

1. He gave them power. Our Saviour made himself 
like unto his brethren in becoming absolutely dependent 
on the Spirit. To Cornelius, Peter testified, " that God 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and 
with power." To this divine equipment, Jesus directed 
the minds of the apostles, when he said : " Ye shall re- 
ceive power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you, 
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and 
in all Judea . . . and unto the uttermost part of the 
earth." It is noteworthy that the men who did most for 
Christ were said to be filled with this power. What was 
the object of this anointing? Not regeneration, nor com- 
fort, nor even the fruits of the Spirit. David and Sam- 
uel had these, as did also John the Baptist. It was for 
service. The time had come when, at vast expense of 
labor, self-denial, and suffering, a new message from God 
■was to be carried to earth's remotest bounds. The work 
calls for uncommon qualification. The witnesses will 
need clear conceptions, strong conviction^, undaunted 
courage, and irrepressible enthusiasm. 

2. He bestows special guidance and direction. The 
witnesses are not to be left to their own judgment and 
self-determination. To Philip, he said : " Go, join thy- 
self to this chariot ; " and afterward, by the same Spirit, 



30 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

he was caught away. " Three men seek thee ; go with 
them doubting nothing," was his explicit command to 
Peter at Joppa. To the church at Antioch, he said : 
" Separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work where- 
unto I have called them." The church sent them not; 
the Spirit called them and appointed their field. On his 
second missionary journey Paul wished to preach the 
gospel in Asia. The Spirit forbade. Then he essayed 
to go into Bithynia, and again the Spirit of Jesus suf- 
fered him not. Pressing on westward he came to Troas, 
where, in a vision of a man of Macedonia, he heard the 
words : " Come over and help us." Burdened servants 
of God, charged with great missionary operations, find 
comfort in the fact of his abiding presence and directing 
grace. 

3. His co-operation is as freely bestowed. His own 
testimony is superadded to that of the human witnesses. 
On his second trial before the Jewish council, Peier said : 
" The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, 
hanging him on a tree. Him did God exalt with his 
right hand to be a prince and a Saviour, for to give re- 
pentance to Israel and remission of sins. And we are wit- 
nesses of these things ; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom 
God hath given to them that obey him." (Rev. Ver.) 
Years later, in the first Christian council, it was agreed 
not to burden the gentile convert with the ordinances of 
Moses. The apostles wrote to the brethren in Antioch 
that "it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay 
upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, 
that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from 
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication." 
(Rev. Ver.) In every place where Christ was preached, 



THE AUTHOR OF MISSIONS. 31 

there was the Spirit to corroborate and establish. "When 
difficult questions, involving the relations of law and 
gospel arose, baffling apostolic wisdom, he brought solu- 
tion and deliverance. His authorship is demonstrated 
by the victories won by the church over its enemies. 

He delivered it from the dictation of the Jewish coun- 
cil. These bloody men proposed to exclude a certain 
doctrine of the apostles. You must not preach in this 
name. Preach, if you will, but omit the name of Jesus. 
The issue is sharp and definite. Never were the rulers 
more grim and resolute. This Galilean ministry is daily 
in the temple setting on them the brand of murder. 
Though they had said in horrible imprecation, " his 
blood be on us and on our children," they are maddened 
to desperation when it is about to be accomplished, 
Peter, filled with the Spirit, greeted their fierce look and 
challenge with a calm dignity and steady voice, " We 
must obey God rather than man." (Rev. Ver.) That 
was the declaration of independence. Peter put the 
whole world in his debt by this bold announcement of 
the doctrine of religious liberty. Henceforth, the 
apostles are the leaders of Israel. 

By the same power they were delivered from the domi- 
nation of the State. King Herod stretched forth his hand 
and slew James. This brutal assault was doubtless en- 
couraged by the foiled and vindictive rulers. It pleased 
the people. Peter was next arrested. The same fate 
awaited him, in the purpose of Herod. Sixteen soldiers 
kept him secure in the prison until the end of passover 
week should allow his execution. It was a supreme 
crisis. The death of Peter would be the signal for the 
destruction of all the apostles and leaders. How the 



32 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

church could survive such a loss no disciple knew. Im- 
potent in the clutches of the king, the church betook itself 
to prayer. God's angel came to the prison, the bolts fly 
back, the doors open, the chains fall from Peter's limbs, 
and he walks forth the Lord's freeman. The guards, 
unable to account for the prisoner's escape, are condemned 
to immediate death. A few days later the tyrant expired 
in dreadful agonies, for God smote him. An awe of the 
little flock fell on all the people. Better play with the 
forked lightning than lay unfriendly hands on these men. 
It is vain for rulers and arrogant men to kick against the 
goads. God's eternal purpose in Christ through the Spirit 
shall be brought to pass. This gospel of the kingdom 
must be preached in Jerusalem and unto the ends of the 
earth. 

The spirit of Jewish caste was another powerful and 
dangerous enemy. The rooted prejudice and hate of cen- 
turies set itself against the Lord's Anointed. The middle 
wall of partition may hem in the institutions of Moses, 
but it cannot confine the grace and truth which came by 
Jesus Christ. It must be broken down. Peter's apos- 
tolic labors brought him to Joppa, on the western limit 
of his native land. Possibly he was looking out across 
the sea, thinking of the needs of the people beyond, when 
a vision appeared to him. He saw in a vessel, as it were 
a great sheet let down from heaven, " the fourfooted beasts 
of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and 
fowls of the heaven." (Rev. Ver.) He heard a voice 
saying, " Kill and eat." When this was thrice repeated, 
and himself had been thrice rebuked for his hesitation, 
visitors called thrice for him at the gate. They were mes- 
sengers from Cornelius the gentile soldier. The Spirit 



THE AUTHOR OF MISSIONS. 33 

bade Peter go "with them, making no distinction." (Rev. 
Ver.) He preached Jesus to a gentile congregation ; 
they were converted ; the Spirit fell on them, and they 
were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. 
Several days the apostle remained the guest of the cen- 
turion, thus making of him a social as well as a religious 
equal. The principle of the religious equality of all men 
under the gospel was distinctly admitted and established. 
Later on trouble arose in the church at Antioch con- 
cerning this matter. Some of the Jewish members were 
declaring that the Gentile converts must obey the law of 
Moses as a condition of salvation. They were conscien- 
tious in their view, and reverent of the old Scripture, 
which really supplied them with powerful arguments. 
Here is a theological difficulty which no human wisdom 
can overcome The letter of the Old Testament seems to be 
in irreconcilable conflict with the freedom of the gospel. 
The council in the church at Jerusalem is called, and 
Peter explains that the exaltation of the Gentile to equal- 
ity with the Jew in the gospel is the act of God. At the 
command of the Spirit he had opened the door of faith to 
the uncircumcision. The Holy Spirit inspired the decree 
of the council which enunciated the fact that the Gentiles 
are free from the law, and that salvation is all of grace. 
"With that sublime decree the partition walls of the ages 
fell down, and the trammels of the law fell from the 
gospel forever. 

These mighty deeds of the sovereign Spirit are won- 
ders of grace and pledges of the world-wide triumph of 
the cross. They are the ground of the lonely missionary's 
hope and the inspiration of the noblest deeds of self- 
sacrifice. The mighty working of the Spirit does not 



34 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

excite our reverent wonder more than does his marvellous 
wisdom. Under his guidance, how gentle and easy the 
stages by which the movement spreads from Jerusalem to 
the great centres of pagan civilization. Years of pros- 
perity and growth followed Pentecost. There was no 
preaching abroad ; no heathen was invited to Christ. The 
apostles were satisfied to remain in the holy city. Evi- 
dently a new type of men was needed ; men with broader 
views and larger sympathies. The Holy Spirit brought 
them in by springing an emergency on the church. The 
Grecian widows were neglected in the distribution of 
alms. Deacons became a necessity. Significant fact, 
each one of them is a foreign-born Jew, except the last, 
and he is a Gentile proselyte. Stephen and Philip, full 
of the Spirit, begin to preach. Stephen awakens sudden 
and fierce antagonism. He sees deep meanings in the 
gospel, and the ultimate breaking down of Judaism before 
it. He preaches his gospel, and the Jews stone him in their 
wrath. This brought on deadly persecution, the church 
was scattered, and for the first time the gospel got abroad. 
Samaria is evangelized by Philip. Now we understand 
why the Lord preserved this strange people for six 
centuries. They are neither Jew nor Gentile. They are 
a half-way race between. The social and religious chasm 
between Israel and the heathen is bridged by these people. 
Next follows the conversion of the Ethiopian, and the in- 
troduction of the gospel into Africa. Then follows the 
conversion of Paul, a chosen vessel to bear the good 
tidings far off among the reigning peoples of the earth. 
Finally Peter opens the door of the kingdom to Cornelius, 
when the gospel defined, vindicated, and established, 
begins its magnificent career of conquest. 



THE AUTHOR OF MISSIONS. 35 

Standing in one of the streets of St. Louis, Mo., is a 
large outline map of North and South America, curiously 
constructed of incandescent lights. Looking at the frame- 
work in the night, one sees a point of light begin to trem- 
ble on the isthmus. Now two, now three, and in a flash 
two continents stand out in lines of fire. Let the church 
of God plant her missions all over the waste and desolate 
places of the earth. To the unpurged vision of the world 
it will seem a reckless waste. In moments of weary wait- 
ing the struggle may appear unequal and hopeless to the 
church herself. Let us remember Hitn who started this 
work, and whose presence is pledged to us forever. With 
confidence in God we will touch the strategic points of the 
world with Christian missions, expecting some good day 
to see the Holy Spirit flash through them with amazing 
power and fill the whole earth with the glory of the 
Lord. 



III. 

THE HORIZON OF CHRIST. 

EEV. W. H. P. FAUNCE, 

Pastor Fifth Avenue Baptist Churchy New York. 

Jesus Cheist had been speaking the parable of the 
tares and the wheat. The disciples came to him privately, 
asking for an interpretation of its meaning. The beauty 
and power of a parable are in this, that it means much or 
little, according to the calibre of the man who hears it. 
A little man looks into a parable of Christ and sees the 
reflection of his own littleness — an ingenious and amusing 
story, nothing more. A great soul looks into it and sees 
there the eternal principles on which the world is built. 
So when the disciples cried, " Declare unto us the parable 
of the tares of the field," they knew not what they asked. 
They little dreamed what answer they would evoke. 
Perhaps they thought Christ was talking about the 
province of Galilee. At most he was speaking of Pales- 
tine, the abode of the divinely chosen race. But suddenly 
Christ pushed out their horizon to an infinite radius with 
one quiet sentence : " The field is the world." 

First of all, let us reverse the thought and consider 
how Christ teaches us that this world is a field. Said the 
great dramatist : 

All the world's a stage, 
And all the men and women merely players. 

And truly, when we see how men come and go in this 
earthly life, how swift are the exits and entrances, how 
S6 



THE HOKIZON OF CHRIST, 37 

transitory their achievements and how fictitious much of 
their pomp and power and parade, we are all. sometimes 
tempted to say, " This world's a stage." This is the pre- 
vailing view of poetry, ancient and modern. The poet is 
an idealist, looking at the eternal truths beneath the chang- 
ing outward forms, and to him human history seems a 
passing show, a series of phantasmagoria. The pessimist 
and the Buddhist go a step farther and declare that life is 
an evil from whose pain and delusion all mortals should 
be glad to escape. Even Christian poetry is full of the 
dramatic and scenic idea of life. One of the first poets of 
our English tongue centuries ago said : " Life is the flight 
of a bird through a lighted room at evening ; " and Ten- 
nyson in " Crossing the Bar," represents his own life as 
the pause of a boat drawn up on the shore, that soon 
sets out again to the infinite sea. 

Sharply opposed to this poetic view of life is the 
modern scientific view, which regards the world as a 
mechanism, a soulless combination of powers, grinding 
away under inexorable laws. Christian thought in the 
eighteenth century commonly spoke of the world as a 
skillfully contrived machine. We have now added to 
this conception the idea of growth, of evolution ; but still 
the prevailing scientific view of the world is that of a 
pitiless, impersonal mechanism working toward some end 
no man can discern. 

Now Christ comes to tell us that both these views of 
life are poor and insufficient. He teaches that the world 
is not a fleeting show ; that we are dealing with sternest 
realities ; that the present life is infinitely grand and its 
issues are to last forever. So he teaches that nature is not 
a mere blind working of forces, but that God the Father 
'4 



38 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

is above and around and within it. Then he gives us 
his own conception, — the world a field , i. e., an opportunity 
for the planting and the growth of the divine seed. 
Constantly in his teaching he returns to this conception, 
and in eight different parables he pictures the kingdom 
of heaven as a divine growth out of human soil. In the 
parable of the mustard seed, and of the vineyard, and of 
the seed growing secretly, and in a score of other 
passages, we see Christ looking on the world as one vast 
field for the divine planting, and the world seems to him 
made for nothing else than the implanting and develop- 
ment of the divine seed which God has entrusted to our 
human keeping. 

As we gaze on a great city to-day, we may well ask : 
What is all this for? These factories and mills, whose 
ponderous wheels revolve through light and darkness, 
whose tall chimneys belch smoke and flame, these libraries 
and art galleries and schools, these churches and homes — 
what are they all for ? Christ holds the answer, and if 
we are to do his work we must share his view. All 
these are a field, a great and splendid possibility. As 
some owner of broad estates may gaze out upon them all 
and see in his mind's eye future orchards and waving 
yellow harvests, so Christ looks out on our seething 
world of human action and sees in it all an inspiring 
opportunity. Our organizations and undertakings, our 
legislatures and universities, our business houses, our 
unions in labor or science or art, all the toil and strife 
and eager struggle of humanity — Christ sees in it all a 
great opening, a splendid possibility, a field where the 
divine ideal may be realized and divine truth may 
blossom in human fruitage. The world in itself he 



THE HORIZON OF CHRIST. 39 

views as neither good nor bad, but a soil in which either 
bad or good will grow ; a soil with powers of production 
to be utilized either by Christ or by Satan ; a soil so 
fecund that whatever .is dropped into it tends at once to 
sprout and spread and wax and put forth great branches. 

Have we learned yet to stand beside Christ and take 
his view of all the moving, striving powers about us? 
The world as an opportunity — what an inspiring and up- 
lifting view is this ! As we study history, as we peruse 
the newspaper, as we meet men and see their varied occu- 
pations, let this world be to us, as to Jesus Christ, not a 
passing show, not a blind median ism, but one vast and 
glorious possibility, an opening for divine seed, a promise 
of divine harvest. The world is a field, where the good 
will grow as quickly as the evil, yellow wheat as easily 
as noisome weeds. 

But now look more closely at the thought as Christ 
spake it : " The field is the world." The man who said 
that was a Jew, and the Jews had been trained from time im- 
memorial to believe that they alone were the chosen field, 
and the rest of humanity was arid desert. Indeed, all 
of ug are natural Ptolemaists — we think the sun, moon, 
and stars, revolve about ourselves. The zenith is always 
the point just over our heads, the nadir just beneath our 
feet, and the most important w T ork in the world w r hat we 
ourselves are doing. It is wholly right that for each 
man the centre of interest should be his own task. But 
men differ greatly as regards their field of vision. A 
man standing on a plain may see perhaps two or three 
miles in any direction. If we imagine such a man slowly 
lifted into the air, ascending some height like the Eiffel 
Tower, his first sensation will be that of expanding hori- 



40 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

zon. At the height of fifty feet his circle of vision may- 
be ten miles in radius ; at one hundred feet, twenty miles ; 
at five hundred feet, fifty miles ; his ascent is marked by 
a series of concentric horizons, and the man's altitude 
above the earth is exactly measured by the width of his 
horizon upon it. Now this is true in the spiritual realm. 
A man's mental and moral altitude is measured exactly 
by his circle of interest and sympathy. Some men live 
in a well — their horizon is the well's mouth with a tiny 
patch of sky above it; others dwell on a mountain top, 
and behold all the kingdoms of the world at every sun- 
rise. The extension of the gospel is hindered lo-day not 
so much by the wickedness as by the littleness of men. 
When a man is positively vicious we can apply rebuke, 
and correction, and prison bare; but when he is stub- 
bornly and persistently little, what remedy have we then ? 
I have seen the Lord's Prayer written in microscopic 
characters within the circle of a silver dime, every letter 
perfect, but practically invisible. And I have seen men 
whose Christianity seemed faultlessly orthodox, but so lit- 
tle, so circumscribed, as to be practically useless to mankind. 
All of us know men whose horizon is bounded by 
their business pursuits. They understand how to do one 
thing, and do it successfully. But outside of that little 
circle, which shrinks constantly as the years pass, they 
have no vision, no enjoyment, no aspiration. To them 
the field is the office, the store, or the study, and like 
Noah floating in his ark they leave the rest of the world 
to drown. One of the most eminent college presidents 
this country ever saw, a man whose name would be 
instantly recognized if I should pronounce it, wrote some 
some years ago : " The men who least comprehend what 



THE HORIZON OF CHRIST. 41 

I am trying to do in this college, are the professors of 
the college. They are noble, self-sacrificing men, but 
each one considers his own department the only really 
important one, and the idea of building up a university 
is something none of them can grasp." Some of the 
men who stand highest in our churches to-day have never 
yet caught a glimpse of what Christ is doing on this 
earth. 

Other men have a horizon bounded by the walls of 
their own home. A beautiful nest they have built for 
wife and children ; there they retire from storm and 
stress, there they find repose and sympathy ; but it has 
never occurred to them that that home was given as a means 
of blessing all other homes in the wide world. "I will 
bless thee," said God to Abraham, when promising him a 
home, " I will bless thee, and in thee shall all families of 
the earth be blessed." A man whose horizon is the four 
walls of his home has not reached any remarkable ele- 
vation either of intellect or heart. 

Other men have enlarged their circle of vision till it 
embraces a church, a religious denomination, but refuse to 
extend farther. To them their church is practically 
co-extensive with the kingdom of God. They spell their 
church with a capital letter, all others with a small one, 
or in some way indicate that it is the sole channel of God's 
grace coming into the hearts of men. They unconsciously 
begin to live for the church — they become propagandists 
rather than preachers ; they make proselytes rather than 
Christians. 

Other men there are whose horizon embraces a whole 
city or State, or even an entire nation, republic or empire. 
This constitutes the great work of the famous German 



42 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

chancellor who stood so long at the head of the German 
Empire. When Bismarck came to office he found scores 
of little German duchies, independent cities, petty princi- 
palities, each one collecting its own taxes, making its own 
laws, acknowledging its own sovereign ; and he pushed 
out the German horizon, he lifted up before the German 
peoples the great conception of a Fatherland, and through 
that enlargement-of horizon has come all the power and 
glory of the German Empire of to-day. Will there ever 
come a man who will do the same thing for the various sects 
and denominations into which Christendom is sundered 
to-day ? Yes, I believe the prophet will yet arise, who, 
sacrificing no conviction and injuring no Christian con- 
science, shall yet lead all Christian hearts toward the 
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, make us all see 
that the kingdom is greater than any corner of it, and ful- 
fill the prayer of Christ, " That they all may be one." 

But wider yet is the thought of Jesus. The field is not 
my city, my country, my church, nor all churches togeth- 
er — the field is the world ! Wherever man is found, 
from sea to sea and pole to pole, regardless of all lines of 
race and color and belief; all divisions, social, political, 
religious, the field is the world — anything less is a cari- 
cature of Christianity, any smaller conception is a belit- 
tling of our faith ; any smaller endeavor unworthy of the 
Christian name. The man who wants to work for Christ 
must share the horizon of Christ ; the man who truly 
stands beside the Son of God will see the world as he 
saw it. 

Here, then, is the true motive of foreign missions. 
Not that the heathen will be punished eternally, not that 
they are dropping into a pit of woe at the rate of so many 



THE HORIZON OF CHRIST. 43 

a minute. Such calculations will not help us.- The ulti- 
mate fate of all souls we leave in the hands of the Infin- 
ite God. We are willing to say that what we know 
about the future is little, what we do not know is im- 
mense. Our message is not a theodicy, but a gospel. It 
is ours, not " to justify the ways of God to men," but to 
rectify the ways of men to God. The ultimate motive is 
this : We love Christ, and what he is doing we would do 
also. We love Christ, and therefore wherever his pierced 
feet lead the way, we must follow. We love Christ, and 
therefore while he is saying "the field is the world," 
we dare not say : " The field is my church, my city, my 
native land." As the Crusaders had one answer to all ob- 
jections — "Deus vutt" so our answer is only this, " It is 
the will of Christ." 

Often when we speak of the regions beyond, we hear 
the cry, " heathen at home." Dear friends, are you not a 
little weary of hearing that ? Are you not a little weary 
of hearing that cry from men who never lift their finger 
for the sake of the heathen at their door ? But I will 
not pause to show how pitifully small that cry often is. 
I will only ask this : Suppose the church bad always 
acted on the principle of converting the " heathen at 
home," where would we be to-day ? There was a time 
when our Teutonic forefathers hunted and lived in the 
German forests. Then the Irish monk Boniface felt the 
missionary impulse, he crossed the channel, preached to 
our rough ancestors, and baptized one hundred thousand 
with his own hand. There was a time when our Anglo- 
Saxon fathers were in England. " Not Angles, but 
angels," said Gregory, as he gazed on their fair long hair 
and blue eyes. He sent Augustine to that far-away for- 



44 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

eign province. At Canterbury, where now stands the 
chief cathedral of England, the preacher landed with his 
monks, carrying the cross and chanting a psalm, and 
England has been through all the succeeding centuries a 
Christian nation, because of men who would not stay at 
home in the presence of the Macedonian cry. 

Suppose we could induce the churches of New York to 
close eyes and ears to all the world beyond, and make 
the field simply Manhattan Island. How long do you 
think it would take us to convert the heathen there, while 
every steamer brings a new load into Castle Garden ? A 
thousand years would be a small estimate, and at the end 
of that time the churches themselves would have ceased 
to exist. There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; 
there is that withholdeth, and it tendeth to poverty. 

Here is also the true method of foreign missions. The 
good seed are the children of* the kingdom. Not simply 
certain truths are we trying to give to heathendom, not to 
plant certain dogmas and watch their development, but 
to plant living men and women in the heart of heathen- 
dom. We are to give not a theology, but a self; we are 
to plant not Christianity, but Christians. Every gift is 
great when the self goes with it, and every gift is small 
which has no heart behind it. The amount of self that 
goes into the contribution box measures the effectiveness 
of the contribution. Sometimes, in cases of illness, the 
physicians prescribe a draught of ordinary water drunk 
from a wooden cup fashioned out of some medicinal forest 
tree. It is only common water that the sick man drinks, 
yet that water resting in the hollow cup has absorbed into 
it all the healing virtues of the forest tree. So I have 
known men who could give only a tiny gift, ten minutes 



THE HORIZON OF CHRIST. 45 

of time, a single dollar, it may be; yet that gift, coming 
from a Christlike soul, bad so absorbed into itself the 
quality of the giver, that it was full of healing and help- 
ing power for humanity. The good seed is not simply 
propositions that we can promulgate, not simply institu- 
tions that we can transport, but men and women who are 
the children of the kingdom who, because Christ has 
touched them, are able to touch others into Christlike 
life. 

"We see, also, the true spirit of missions, — one of se- 
rene and quiet confidence. We are not beggars for Christ, 
but ambassadors for Christ. We are not pleading and 
arguing with men to give us their pittance for our pet 
enterprise ; we are going forth in the name of the victori- 
ous Christ, having utmost confidence in him and in the 
human soil where he has bidden us plant. We are doing 
our own task most truly when we are remembering con- 
stantly the whole field which the Master has in view. 
We cannot do his work until we see through his eyes. 
You remember bow in the picture of the Angelus the 
two workers stand at close of day bending over the little 
task they have completed, while the sun sinks in the 
western sky and the convent bell peals out the hour of 
prayer. It will not be long before all of us will stand 
over our little life-work finished forever ; but let us re- 
joice that many others will stand beside us, and let us 
remember amid the noonday toil, that the field is not 
merely our task, but the whole world for which Christ 
died. 



IV. 

MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE 
HEATHEN. 

HENRY E. ROBINS, D. D., LL. D M 

Professor in Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y. 

Upon what motives may we rely to incite the people 
of God to a vigorous prosecution of missionary work 
among those who are destitute of the light of Christian 
truth as -conveyed to us in the Christian Scriptures ? 

The real motive of human action is always within the 
soul, never without. Outward conditions, often in common 
speech called motives, are only occasions by which the 
internal motives are brought into play, and can be called 
motives only in a secondary, not in a primary sense. 
Money as external to me is not my motive in seeking it, 
whether I seek it for worthy or unworthy ends ; it is 
rather my desire for it, that I may use it to sustain and 
enlarge and enrich my life and the lives of others ; or^tbat 
I may hoard it to gratify the passion of mere possession, 
or pervert it to secure power or station or luxury — self- 
gratification in one or more of its protean forms. 

Bearing in mind, then, that the motive which we seek 
is within, we are ready to say that God himself is the 
fountain of missionary motive. " God/' said the Great 
Teacher, " so loved the world, that he gave his only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not 
perish, but have eternal life." God loves and desires to 
save a world of sinners ; this fact, declared so impressively 



MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN. 47 

in the passage which we have quoted, is every where either 
expressly affirmed or implied by the general tenor of the 
word of God from beginning to end. The love of God, 
not his complacent but his pitying love — to make a dis- 
tinction upon which the theologians rightly insist — the 
love of God toward a world of sinners is the one only 
motive sufficiently adequate in vitality and force, per- 
sistent in its energy and comprehensive in its scope, to 
inspire the church to her stupendous task of the conquest 
of the world for its Lord. A plan which the infinite God 
only could conceive, he only can execute. A supernatural 
work requires a supernatural motive. 

But, you say, the love of God for sinners is a motive 
for his action, not for ours. Let us see. 

The love of God found its first manifestation through 
him who shared it with the Father from the beginning, 
even the incarnate Son of God, especially in his atoning 
death, by which God's gracious relation to sinful men was 
justified and made possible. The love of God toward a 
world of sinners was the motive of Christ's action. But, 
you say, the motive is still within the sphere of the Divine 
nature. Admitted, but notice : It is God's plan in making 
a channel for his love that, by union with Christ, by faith 
in him through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, 
sinful men shall become partakers of the Divine nature, 
children of God, so that the impulse of saving grace which 
wrought in the Father and in Christ shall be operative in 
them also — each one of them 

No blind, unsharing instrument, 
But joyful partner of his purpose. 

Accordingly, our Lord said to his immediate disciples, and 



48 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

through them to Christians of all time : " Ye are the salt 
of the earth." " Ye are the light of the world." They 
are constituted salt in order that, since it is of the nature of 
salt to save, they may save the earth. They have been 
constituted luminaries in order that, since it is of the 
nature of light to shine, they may enlighten the world. 
It is of the very essence of salt, as Bengel suggests, com- 
menting on this passage, to have savor and to give savor, 
to have it in order to give it. If it neither has it nor gives 
it, it is not salt, and is good for no economic use, fit only 
to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. So lamps 
are lighted, as the Great Teacher affirms, not to be put 
under a bushel, but on the stand, that they may shine 
unto all that are in the house. In harmony with this 
teaching of our Lord, God's promise to Abraham, called 
the father of believers of all time, since in spiritual char- 
acter they were to resemble their great progenitor, was : 
" I will bless thee, and make thee a blessing. In thee 
shall all the families of the earth be blessed." v God's pur- 
pose, we see, is not attained when the individual soul is 
made Christian. A man is regenerated rather in order 
that, while he himself is " being saved " (Acts 2 : 47), 
while the process of salvation is going on in him, and 
ideally inseparable from it, he may save others also ; so 
that, at last, the kingdom of God in the new redeemed 
race shall be established. God's ideal plan is that his re- 
deeming love, kindled as a flame in the hearts of his 
redeemed children, shall run like a prairie fire, each 
ignited blade of grass kindling its neighbor until the 
burning circle extends the whole horizon round. The 
divine impulse of God f s redeeming love for sinners within 
the believer can be limited in its scope only by his ability ; 



MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN'. 41) 

however the environment of immediate duty may restrain 
kirn, his love, since it is the love of God working through 
him, embraces the world. He is in fellowship, com- 
munion, or, as Dr. Hackett used to emphasize the thought, 
he is in co-partnership with God ; what God loves, he 
loves ; what God seeks, he seeks. In a word, he is 
a channel of divine grace, as Christ was. We have in this 
manner disclosed the supreme, the only real motive upon 
which we must rely, and to which we must make our 
appeal. The love of God for a sinful world inspiring a 
regenerate church in conscious, living union with her Lord 
is the sole hope of missions among the heathen. 

But there is a fact, attested by current observation and 
church history, which, carefully considered, puts a strong 
emphasis upon the truth we have discovered — viz., that 
missionary zeal of a certain sort may be awakened and 
missionary enterprises may be prosecuted by appeal 
to motives operative in the unrenewed heart. Destitute 
of love, a man may bestow all his goods to feed the poor, 
may give his body to be burned, may compass sea and 
land to make proselytes. Accordingly, missionary work 
. may be vigorously carried on, but in a loveless spirit, bur- 
dened by unconsecrated workers, unconsecrated money, 
unspiritual methods, and unspintual ends. You will 
allow me to say, my brethren, that it is my conviction 
that in these loveless helps, in the alien spirit, we find our 
chief hindrance in our work. A sort of moral paralysis 
seems at times to steal over us, making our efforts abortive, 
so that results are far from commensurate with the money 
expended and the machinery set in operation. I speak 
as unto men spiritually w r ise ; judge ye what I say. 

Passing this important point, deserving a fuller discus- 



50 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

sion, with this brief allusion, let me now pass to say that we 
are to seek by every means to awaken the regenerate 
church to her sublime privilege and responsibility, as put 
in trust by virtue of her regeneration with the redeeming 
love of God toward a sinful world. And this we may do 
by making it evident that, since Christ is the God of 
providence, head over all things, administering the 
government of the world in the interest of redemption, all 
the vast resources of our material civilization are, so far as 
they are within her power, facilities granted to the church 
with the express design to enable her, as trustee of that 
priceless thing, to make known God's love toward those, 
the world over, for whom Christ died. 

When on one occasion that seer of God, the late Jonah 
G. Warren, stood watching a company of missionaries 
standing upon the deck of a steamer just putting to sea, 
he is reported to have exclaimed, as if at that moment 
profoundly impressed with the thought : " That is what 
steamers are for ! " Yes, that is what steamers are for in 
God's intent. The means of transportation, which mark 
our age above every other which has preceded it, are 
highways which Christ has cast up for feet shod with the 
preparation of the gospel of peace ; the means of commu- 
nication of intelligence so wonderful that a whisper 
may be heard from city to city, and the touch of a child's 
finger speed a message around the globe ; the accumula- 
tions of wealth in Christian hands greater than ever since 
the Babe of Mary awakened to his mission in the manger 
of Bethlehem; Christian learning wider in its scope, and 
more profound, and more exact in its acquisitions than 
ever before ; Christian homes larger in number, and 
realizing the Christian ideal of family life more fully than 



MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN. 51 

ever since the Christian calendar began to witness* to the 
supremacy of our Lord ; the social and political life of 
Christendom testifying — I will not say notwithstanding, 
but even in its conflicts and agitations to the resistless 
working of the transforming power of the gospel — what 
are all these but means which God's love may use in pour- 
ing itself forth through his children, as Christ poured 
forth his blood for the salvation of the world. The 
church of preceding times was never so equipped, never 
had such resources at her command. The providential 
indications of God's purpose in redemption were never so 
clear; and hence Christians of earlier times were so 
far excusable for their misconception of the mission 
of the church ; but our opportunity is both index and 
measure of our privilege and our duty. Alas for us if we 
misinterpret Christ's meaning in blessing us so abund- 
antly, if we fail to detect in the profusion of his gifts to us 
the yearning of his heart for lost sheep not of this fold. 
What he has done for us is but a declaration, a vivid por- 
trayal before our very eyes, of what he desires to do for 
others through us. Let us tremble with a holy joy that 
the world's Eedeemer dwells within us ; that it is his love 
for earth's perishing millions that moves us. Let us im- 
prison our Lord no longer. Let us cease to restrain the 
divine love that urges us along the pathway of the Ke- 
deemer's mission. Is the printed word of God a living 
thing to us, throbbing with the life of the living Word? 
Do we shudder with a sort of horror when we consider 
how darkened and desolate our lives would be without it? 
Have we seen Christ evidently set forth before our eyes 
crucified ? Have we clearly apprehended the way of sal- 
vation through his atoning death ? Have we known the 



02 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

holy joy, the sacred peace of forgiven sin? Have we 
known the sweet sanctity of the Christian home and the 
innumerable blessings of the Christian State ? What are 
these but gifts of love of the strong Son of God, impell- 
ing us by the very richness of these gifts to give ourselves 
no rest until Christ shall be to all the world what he is to 
us ? May I quote here, as expressing my thought, from 
Dr. Storrs' address, delivered at the eighty-second annual 
meeting of the American Board, recently held in Pitts- 
field : "Oar aim," he said, "is to brighten humanity, by 
making the heavenly temper universal among mankind ; 
to make every house on earth a Christian home, and every 
community a Christian community, a perfect, vital, social 
organization. ... It has been the idea in God's 
mind from the outset that the heavenly life should finally 
be experienced throughout the earth, until heaven and 
earth blend at the horizon, and the heavenly Jerusalem 
be founded on earth." Yes, it is the love of God in us for 
a world steeped in the guilt and misery of sin that prompts 
us to pray, taught by the Saviour of men himself : " Thy 
kingdom come ; thy will be done, as in heaven, so on 
earth." Our transcendent privileges and the appalling 
destitution, both spiritual and material, of heathen nations, 
in their piteous ignorance of God and Christ, terrified by 
the creations of their own darkened imaginations, the 
dense gloom, the very shadow of death in which they 
grope their way through life to hopeless graves, are fitted 
to awaken the divine motive within us to its uttermost 
urgency. 

Nor can any hope that, on scriptural grounds, we may 
cherish for the regeneration of individual souls among the 
heathen in any wise diminish the force of such an appeal 



MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN. 53 

to this motive. We do, indeed, rejoice in the fact that 
Christ in his death " is the propitiation for our sins ; and 
not for ours only, but also for the whole world " (1 John 
2:2); that the atonement is as extensive in its scope as 
human sin ; that the ministry of the Spirit, made possible 
by the death of Christ so to apply its benefits, is as univer- 
sal as the scope of the atonement ; that the entire race is 
thus under a real probation of grace, so that the death of 
Christ not only makes salvation possible for all, but cer- 
tain for some in all ages and all lands. This, however, 
is only to say that there is peril of the loss of the soul, 
whether in heathen or Christian lands, and that whatever 
motive impels us to preach the gospel at home has, if 
right, equal force at least in impelling us to preach the 
gospel among all nations. Beyond dispute it is certain 
that the truths of the Christian Scriptures assimilated by 
faith, wrought into the life of the soul by the joint action of 
intellect, sensibility, and will, are essential to the realization 
among men of distinctive Christian experience, essential 
to the attainment of Christ-like character, essential to the 
purification and reorganization of social and political life 
according to the Christian ideal ; and these in their turn 
are essential to the realization of God's plan of the ulti- 
mate establishment of his kingdom in the heavenly state. 
The unfolding of the ages is, we all believe, as the Script- 
ures teach, " according to the purpose of him who worketh 
all things after the counsel of his will " (Eph. 1 : 1 1). What 
we behold, then, of the triumphs of Christian civilization 
in the world is in fulfillment of that purpose. Reasoning 
from what we see that God has done, and interpreting 
accordingly the intimations of the future given in the 
Holy Scriptures, who will venture to say that the light 



54 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDBESSES. 

which has already fallen from the Sun of Righteousness 
upon our darkened humanity may not be the radiant dawn 
of a perfect day, when the brightest visions of inspired 
seers shall become accomplished fact ? At any rate, we 
are working alons; the line of the Divine will, as un- 
mistakably declared in the providence of God, when 
planting in the midst of the peoples churches of regener- 
ated men and women, instructed in the word of God, we 
carry to them the force, the only force which can both 
regenerate and civilize. Regeneration, evangelization 
first, civilization afterward as its fruit, if God will. God 
in the truths of the Holy Scripture has committed to us 
the key of knowledge by which we have entered into the 
heaven of Christian privilege which we enjoy. In this 
sense, he has made the expression of his love to the na- 
tions dependent upon the fidelity of his church. In this 
sense, we stand in the place of God to the heathen nations. 
Amazing responsibility ! In view of it, how acute the 
sense of our obligation ! In view of it, are we not com- 
pelled to say that whoever neglects or refuses to obey our 
Lord's last solemn charge to his church sets himself to 
resist rather than to hasten the coming of the day of God, 
assumes the attitude of an enemy of his race? 

We are thus led to fix the place of the command of 
Christ to disciple the nations as a missionary motive. As 
external to man, it is a motive only in a secondary sense. 
It can be a real motive only as addressed to a soul filled 
with the love of God for sinners. A command can never 
originate life ; it can only guide it already existing. We 
may galvanize a dead body to a semblance of life by ex- 
ternal appliances, but not so can we quicken it to genu- 
ine activity. We may thunder the commission in the 



MOTIVES TO MISSIONS AMONG THE HEATHEN. 55 

cars of nominal Christendom till doomsday in vain. It 
will never be heard save by those whose ears have been 
opened by the Holy Spirit. Quicken the life of God in 
the souls of men, and they will run in the path of his 
commandments, as the vine runs up the trellis which 
guides but does not give it life, covering it with the beauty 
of its foliage and the lusciousness of its fruit. To him 
to w T hom an appreciation of it has been given by Christ 
dwelling in him, the command to disciple the nations is 
nothing less than a transfiguration ; it is a summons to a 
fellowship in the purest, loftiest purpose that ever entered 
the mind of man. Interpreted by the declaration with 
which our Lord introduced it, " All authority hath been 
given unto me in heaven and on earth," it assures love 
shrinking from her great task that this shrinking and 
apparently*; impotent love is nothing less than the infinite 
love of God himself, energized with his infinite power to 
love in spite of demoniac hate and bitterest opposition, 
power to love even unto death, power to continue through 
the centuries to love until a rebellious race has been sub- 
jected by self-sacrificial love to her rightful Lord. Lifted, 
rapt by this divine passion of saving grace above the 
possible plane of mere human action, the Pauls, the 
Careys, the Judsons, the Livingstons, the Patons, the 
Cloughs go forth with the cross in their hearts, the cross 
in their lives, the cross on their lips, never doubting 
that he who inspires them and he w T ho commands them 
will surely " not fail nor be discouraged till he have set 
judgment in the earth " (Isa. 42 : 4). 

Your time will allow me to mention now only one 
more incitement of the great motive to missionary effort. 
That incitement is the fact that there is hidden in the heart 



56 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of every gift of God to us a meaning and sweetness which 
only reveal themselves when the gift is shared with 
others. Money hoarded notoriously makes a man a miser, 
makes a man miserable. Intellectual acquisitions unused 
for the benefit of men only increase sorrow. Indeed, the 
best acquisition is secured in imparting knowledge — a 
practical wisdom that finds its expression in the proverb, 
" If you would learn a thing, teach it." And in the 
highest realm, the spiritual realm, the truth to which we 
call attention has its supreme illustration. No man knows 
the possible sweetness of the gospel until he has instru- 
mentally carried it to other souls. It must be true, 
indeed, that no man knows anything whatever of the love 
of God unless he has the disposition, at least, to commu- 
nicate it. It cannot in the nature of things, be selfishly 
possessed. One of the most pregnant of our Lord's say- 
ings is the declaration of the principle of universal appli- 
cation : " It is more blessed to give than to receive." It 
is more blessed, because it is in giving that we get at the 
kernel of the gift to us. Every parent knows that if he 
would discover the superlative flavor of a fruit, he must 
taste it through the palate of his child. The alabaster 
cruse did not reveal the exceeding preciousness of the oint- 
ment which it contained until she of Bethany, whose it 
was, poured it forth upon the Saviour's head ; then its 
exquisite perfume was for her and for all that were in the 
house. God's love for sinners, his most precious gift to 
us, has within it, at its heart, a secret of blessing for us 
as individuals, as churches, as a nation, waiting to be dis- 
closed in richness beyond our highest thought in propor- 
tion as we obey the Master's injunction, " Freely ye have 
received, freely give." 



V. 

THE HOME RELATION TO FOEEIGN MIS- 
SIONS. 

REV. PHILIP S. MOXOM. D. D., 
Pastor First Baptist Church, Boston, Mtfss. 

The beginnings of Christianity are full of suggestions 
to us. We make a mistake when we turn to apostolic 
times for a fixed model of church organization or a fixed 
method of Christian work, We make no mistake when 
we look back to that time for impulse and direction, for 
inspiration and tendency. 

At first everything was plastic, even fluent. Every 
soul that received " the good tidings" was naturally a 
missionary. Believers, glad in the new gospel, went 
everywhere publishing that gospel. The first preachers, 
w 7 ith few exceptions, had no official character nor formal 
authorization. New communities were penetrated and 
new churches were founded as spontaneously as fields are 
sown with flowers by the vagrant winds and the birds. 
But soon system began to appear. The gentile world 
was to be opened to the gospel. The work of Christi- 
anity was to be consolidated and made permanent, as well 
as expanded. Men were called by the Holy Spirit and 
commissioned by the church to bear the gospel into new 
fields — to plant the seeds and cherish the growth of the 
new life. Paul and Barnabas are typical or representa- 
tive. The whole church of Antioch could not go into 
Asia Minor. That would be not a mission, but a migra- 

57 



58 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

tion. The propagation of the gospel is too great and too 
exigent a work to be left to the spontaneous and unguided 
impulses of everybody. The awakened heart requires 
and produces an awakened intellect. Thought begins to 
grow organic. Zeal begins to seek the discipline and 
efficiency of method. A great genius arises who has the 
strategy of a soldier, the diplomacy of a statesman, and 
the practical constructive energy of a master engineer. 
From the moment Paul appears on the field, appear the 
beginnings of system in the extension of the Christian 
faith and life. As the real aim of Christianity slowly 
defines itself in the Christian mind of that early day, 
the consciousness awakens that the work of spreading the 
gospel requires chosen, qualified, and consecrated men, 
whose whole business shall be to become mouths and 
hands — speakers and builders — for the church. 

All cannot do this work. AH have close and vital 
relations to it ; but they must have special agents, through 
whom the wisdom and love of the whole church shall 
speak and act with the skill and method of minds trained 
to the specific work of organizing out of the chaos of 
pagan life the fair structure of the kingdom of God. 

Ministers and missionaries arise out of the very exi- 
gency of the situation. The distinction between the pas- 
tor and missionary is not accidental. The former con- 
serves what the latter conquers. To the whole church 
was given the commission to " disciple all nations." The 
church fulfills this commission by concentrating its ener- 
gies in chosen representatives, as the body concentrates 
its energy in the eye and hand for the accomplishment of 
a specific work. The missionaries do not assume the 
obligation of the church ; they effectively express the 



THE HOME RELATION TO FOREIGN MISSIONS. 59 

energy of the church in fulfilling its obligation. The 
missionaries are the church evangelizing. They are not 
proxies but instruments — eyes and hands. 

The growth of a specific function in the church always 
brings a peril — the peril of separation of interests. 
Historic experience impressively teaches us- that the pas- 
tor must be bound with the church in one arterial circula- 
tion. He is the church teaching and nourishing itself 
in the truths and life of the Spirit. The missionary also 
must be bound with the church in one arterial circula- 
tion. He is the church invading and possessing new 
territory, the church evangelizing, the church executing 
the Great Commission. 

A subtle error often lurks under the very question, 
What is the relation of Christians at home to missionary 
work in foreign lands ? It is the error of thinking, or 
unconsciously of assuming, that missionaries are people 
in some sense apart from the church, who are worthy, 
indeed, of our admiration and sympathy, and who not 
unreasonably appeal to us for aid, but who are conduct- 
ing an independent enterprise for the promotion of which 
we have no especial obligation. But this is to deny both 
the vital unity of the church — a unity not of form or of 
creed, but of spiritual life — and the universal aim of the 
church as the means through which the kingdom of God 
is to be realized on earth. There is in our thought on 
religion often quite as much disintegrating individualism 
as there is in our thought on social life. 

What is the claim that is on us for missionary enter- 
prise in the broadest sense ? 

It is the claim of Christ, who seeks through his fol- 
lowers the salvation of the world. It is the claim of 



60 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

that love which makes service the supreme law of life. 
It is the claim of that solidarity of the race which makes 
the whole inescapably participant in both the good and 
the ill of all families, tribes, and nations. The gospel 
integrates men in thought and feeling as nature integrates 
them in the physical order of organic life. 

The Christian missionaries in foreign lands are not even 
a mere detachment from the church ; they are the church 
pushing itself forward into the world. They are not 
doing something on behalf of the church for which they 
should be supported ; they are the church doing its own 
duty in unevangelized lands. 

If now we clearly understand the true function of the 
church as the depositary of the gospel, and the means 
through which the kingdom of God is to be realized on 
earth ; if we see that missionary enterprise in foreign 
lands is the legitimate and inalienable enterprise of the 
church, which, from the nature of the case, must be 
carried on immediately by specially chosen and qualified 
workers ; and if we realize, not that these workers are 
simply doing their own work nor that they are doing our 
work for us, but that through them, as agents and rep- 
resentatives, as eyes, and mouths, and hands, w r e are 
doing our own work ; if we clearly realize this, then Ave 
may ask with profit : " What in detail is the relation of 
the great body of Christians in evangelized lands to the 
missionary enterprise in heathen lands ? " 

That relation is : 

1. A Relation of Responsibility. The churches at home 
are responsible to God for the persistent and faithful 
prosecution of this work. It is their great duty to pos- 
sess humanity with the truth, and love, and righteousness 



THE HOME RELATION TO FOREIGN MISSIONS. 61 

of Christ ; in a word, to make Christianity co-extensive 
with the territory and the life of the world. Any con- 
ception of tin church's missionary obligation less broad 
than this is inadequate, and to rest content with any aim 
less inclusive than this is to be unfaithful to Christ and 
to go contrary to the very genius of Christianity. 

The churches at home are responsible for the men and 
means for the prosecution of this work. This responsi- 
bility involves : — (1) Search. Workers are to be found 
who are ready and fit to be the representatives and 
instruments of the church in its missionary enterprise. 
The search is upward and then inward ; to God, and then 
to the members from among whom, by the mediation of 
the church, the missionaries are called. The search is (a) 
grayer to God " that he will send forth laborers into his 
harvest." Prayer is far more than formal petition ; it is 
the pregnant spirit which produces workers and forces. 
It is the strenuous and successful effort to rise to the 
divine point of view, and to appropriate the divine wis- 
dom and power by which souls are impressed and 
anointed and made efficient for the work to which God 
commands them. 

But prayer for fit agents of the church in carrying out 
its mission is genuine and prevailing only as it is accom- 
panied by an expectant and intelligent quest for those fit 
agents. It is inseparable, then, from (b) inquiry. Atten- 
tion must be turned earnestly and persistently toward the 
possible workers. The divine injunction to faith is, 
" seek " as well as u ask." We pray much with our eyes 
shut. The attitude is symbolical of our too common 
habit. The church asks for men, and God answers by 
bidding her open her eyes and look for them. Prayer is 
6 



62 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES, 

not a substitute for effort, but preparation and endowment 
for effort. In all the churches there should be this trust- 
ful, keen-eyed, and earnest quest for men and women in 
whom and through whom the organic Christian life shall 
go into all the world. It was no surprise to the church 
in Antioch when the Spirit said : " Separate me Barnabas 
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." 
It had its eye on these men. But the consciousness of 
the modern church should be much clearer and wider 
than the consciousness of the primitive church. The 
early Christians grew slowly to the idea that they were 
commissioned to possess the world for Christ, while that 
idea belongs among the fundamental elements of our 
Christian thought. 

It is clear that the churches can meet their responsibil- 
ity only by asking God for missionaries, and by seeking 
and finding missionaries. 

The search must he not only a persistent, but also a dis- 
criminating endeavor to secure those who by endowment 
and character are fit for just this work of missionary 
evangelization. The best ought to be the only tolerable ; 
for these missionaries are not mercenaries and substitutes, 
but the very body of Christ, projecting itself into far- 
lying fields, for the purpose of reaching every lost soul, 
and saving the world by the gospel and the indwelling 
life of the Son of God. 

Having found, and continually finding those whom the 
Spirit evidently calls, the church's responsibility involves 
(2) the hearty and authoritative consecration of these 
chosen ones for their special work. " And when they 
had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they 
sent them away." Thus simply is the story told of that 



THE HOME RELATION TO FOREIGN MISSIONS. 63 

first foreign missionary movement. The consecration is 
twofold; it is of the church as well as of the mission- 
aries. No ties were broken. The heart of the church 
continued to beat in the pulses of these men. Their 
iroing was simply an extension of the Christian body. 
The consecration meant, not that the church had fulfilled 
an obligation, but rather that it had recognized an obli- 
gation on itself which it was now proceeding to fulfill in 
the activity and devotion of representatives w T ho were and 
continued to be organically part of its own life. The 
figure that represents the missionary as a worker lowered 
into a mine by a rope which the church holds, is untrue 
by defect. The relation is too vital to be expressed in 
such a figure. In the very act of consecrating and send- 
ing forth missionaries the church says to them : " In you 
goes the church of Christ. This is not your work alone ; 
it is our work ; it is the work of all. You are unsevered 
and unseverable members of the living body that is 
quickened and warmed by one heart and guided by one 
Head." 

The responsibility of the churches at home involves : 
(3) Support The missionary life in heathen lands 
always entails more or less privation and hardship. This 
is inevitable. But we at home have no right to increase 
the hardship by any neglect of our duty ; nor have we a 
right to leave unmitigated any hardship that hinders the 
largest fruitfulness of missionary labor. We are not 
engaged in any charitable work of supererogation. Mis- 
sionary expenses are our legitimate expenses. They 
belong in the regular budget of the churches. The Mis- 
sionary Union is not an independent personality, with its 
own responsibility and obligation. It is merely the agent 



64 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of the churches to facilitate the effort of the churches to 
carry on their work in other lands. One of the evils, or 
at least disadvantages of organization, is the attendant 
lessening of that sense of immediate responsibility which 
ought to be quick in the mind of the churches. The 
responsible person is not the Union but the church. We 
talk much about giving to the Union. We give nothing 
to the Union. The organization is simply the reservoir 
that collects the thousand rivulets of missionary offerings 
to concentrate them in large streams of well directed 
power. 

The support which the missionary enterprise demands 
from the churches at home may be divided into personal 
and general. 

(a) The personal support is such provision for the wants 
of missionaries as shall be adequate. These workers are 
not merely to be kept alive. They should be relieved as 
far as possible from all such care for themselves and their 
families as would prevent them from putting their undi- 
vided energy into their work. One does not tie three 
fingers of his hand, or embarrass his arm with unneces- 
sary weight, when he puts it to any task. The mission- 
aries ai*e our hands, doing the work to which we with 
them have been called. 

(6) The general support is such provision of means as 
shall make work efficient and conserve its results. These 
means include books, buildings, printing presses, schools, 
dispensaries, vehicles, — everything that may serve the 
constructive aims of the missionary. No expense is too 
great if higher efficiency is thereby secured. Parsimony 
makes waste more often than prodigality. We shall 
never give too much. Think of the enterprise in which 



THE HOME RELATION TO FOREIGN MISSIONS. 65 

we are engaged. We are called to evangelize the world. 
We are commissioned to make manifest in all nations the 
kingdom of our God and of his Christ. What is wealth 
for but to serve the ends of that redemptive process which 
is making the history of man? Its chief value lies in its 
susceptibility to transformation into spiritual force and its 
power thus to achieve spiritual results. We own Christ 
as Lord. He is then master of our possessions as well as 
the subject of our professions. By every consideration 
of gratitude, of faith, of enduring interest, and of holy 
love we are bound to give to missions the amplest sup- 
port. Only thus can we honorably meet the responsibility 
that is laid upon us as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

2. The relation of the churches at home to the mission- 
aries and their work in foreign lands should be one of 
sympathy. This is not pity. No missionary desires the 
pity of his brethren at home. His lot is not pitiable ; it 
is most honorable, and his work is most rewarding. But 
sympathy he does ask. What is sympathy ? Not merely 
suffering with ; for it has not regard only for sad and 
painful experiences. Sympathy is feeling with. It is 
entering into and abiding in a community of life. It is 
sharing in all the varying experiences and emotions and 
aspirations and endeavors that have place in a missionary 
life. Such sympathy can exist only on the basis of a right 
conception of the missionary enterprise, and of our vital 
relation thereto. Having such right conception, w r e shall 
feel that the missionary's work is our work. We shall 
sympathize with him in his trials and difficulties. We 
shall sympathize with him in his attempts and achieve- 
ments. We shall feel all the sad or joyful pulsations of 
that distant life as if it were our own. We shall make it 



66 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

our own by our purposeful efforts to know the circum- 
stances and incidents of that life ; by our purposeful love 
urging us into vicarious joy and sorrow ; by our purpose- 
ful solicitude of prayer by which we shall present to God 
the needs and inspirations of those in whom we are ful- 
filling our obligation to " disciple all nations." 

"We need overcome the obstruction of physical remote- 
ness by establishing in our minds a continuous spiritual 
proximity. By cultivating thus a conscientious and vivid 
sympathy with missionaries, w r e not only quicken our 
sense of responsibility for the work, but we also enlarge 
our ideas and deepen our impulses of benevolence. 

It is fair to measure our sympathy by our gifts, if we 
measure our gifts by our ability. To feel genuinely is to 
act. 

There is a shallow missionary sentimentalisrn. Every 
genuine thing seems to be haunted by the ghost of a 
counterfeit. But the counterfeit sympathy bears no cost. 
It flies at the approach of the contribution box. Action 
is the test as well as the expression of emotion. Sacrifice 
authenticates professed purpose. If the men and women 
who are our representatives in foreign lands are real and 
living personalities to us ; if we think of them with a 
sympathy that makes us sharers in their experiences and 
endeavors ; if we bear them on our hearts in prayers that 
throb with the insistence of deep and devout longing 
toward God on their behalf; and if our sympathy is 
vertebrate with a strong sense of our responsibility ; then 
our gifts will be abundant and our zeal will be as ardent 
and enduring as it is rational and pure. 



VI. 

HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK OF 
FOREIGN MISSIONS. 

GEORGE W. NORTHRUP, D. D., LL; D., 

Professor in Chicago University (Theological School) , Chicago, 111. 

I purpose to speak of some of the hindrances at home 
to the work of foreign missions, or some of the causes of 
the comparative failure of the church to evangelize the 
pagan nations. Before expressing my thoughts on this 
subject, I beg leave to utter a word of a personal nature. 
It is possible that my remarks may not secure the approval 
of all ; may, in fact, give offense to some who hear me. 
If such shall be the case, let me assure you that I am not 
moved by any pessimistic spirit, nor by a disposition to 
disparage the missionary history of our people. I am 
not willing to admit that I am inferior to any of my 
brethren in loyalty to the denomination with which I 
have been indentified for fifty years, and which I have 
served in a public way for more than a third of a cen- 
tury. The feeling which I am most distinctly conscious 
of, as I stand before you to-day, is that of heartache in 
view of the apathy of Christian people, and especially the 
apathy of our denomination, in regard to the temporal 
and eternal salvation of the vast population of the pagan 
nations. I have put the question to myself once and 
again, within a few weeks past : " What can be done to 
change this state of things — to awaken the feeling of love 

67 



68 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

and compassion which ought to exist for the hundreds of 
millions of our fellow-men involved in the darkness, de- 
gradation, and misery of heathenism ? I speak in behalf 
of a billion human beings, for every one of whom Christ 
died, every one of whom has a place in the heart of God, 
every one of whom is of as much worth in his sight as 
any citizen of the great republic. It is certain that God 
has done all that he could wisely do in bestowing grace 
upon his people. It is also certain that if they would 
use the grace bestowed with greater fidelity he would 
give more and still more, " opening the windows of 
heaven and pouring out a blessing, that there would not 
be room enough to receive it." The speedy evangeli- 
zation of the pagan world, and shall we not also say, their 
salvation, is, in a real and profound sense, in the hands 
of the church. 

1. Among the causes referred to, we notice, first, the 
departure from the method of Christ in laying chief stress, 
not on salvation here and now, the establishment of the 
kingdom of God on earth, but on salvation in a narrower 
sense of the term, as escape from the retributions of hell. 
To use the words of another : " It has been too much 
the habit of Christian people, in looking abroad upon 
the heathen world, to regard it, not as a kingdom to be 
conquered for Jesus Christ, but rather as a seething sea 
of drowning men, a few of whom might be saved from 
the general wreck by those whom the church sent out on 
her gallant life-boat service." But certainly this is not 
the conception which Christ emphasizes when he sets be- 
fore men the object of their immediate and supreme 
devotion. He began his ministry by preaching the gos- 
pel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is ful- 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 69 

filled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and 
believe the gospel." He frequently called the kingdom 
which he came to establish the " kingdom of heaven," not 
because it is in heaven, but because of its heavenly origin 
and nature. The prayer given by our Lord indicates 
plainly the location and nature of the kingdom for the 
establishment of which he enjoined his disciples to labor 
and pray : " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done" — 
where? In heaven? "Thy will be done on earth as it is 
in heaven." The objects presented in these two clauses 
are identical; the petition, " Thy kingdom come," means, 
" Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The end 
here presented — universal obedience among men to the 
will of God — is the burden of the gospel which Christ 
preached, and which he commanded his disciples to preach 
to "all nations," "to every creature" ; an end which in- 
cludes the whole duty of man, and in the accomplishment 
of which the earth will reflect, in a degree beyond human 
conception, the love, purity, and blessedness of the heav- 
enly world. True, in a few instances, Christ spoke of the 
infinitely diverse destinies of men in the future world ; 
" but for once that he spake about the saving of the soul, 
he spake fifty times about the kingdom." Since Christ's 
method is the wisest and best, in the measure that the 
church has departed from this method it must have lost 
in religious power. How much power, in the way of 
missionary appeal, has the doctrine of the eternal per- 
dition of the great majority of the pagan world? I re- 
ceived a few months ago a letter from a missionary in 
India, accompanied by a printed appeal to all evangelical 
churches, in which he states that while last year (1890) 
fifty thousand heathen had been rescued, twenty millions 



70 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

had died, few of whom had heard of the love of God in 
Christ. And he exclaims : " Twenty millions of immor- 
tal souls swept into hell in a single year !" 

It is probably an approximately correct estimate that, 
during the missionary year just closed, twenty million 
pagans who had reached the age of moral accountability 
have passed away, the great majority of whom never 
heard of the gospel of the grace of God. Is there not, in 
this fact, considered in the light of the commonly received 
view of the Bible relation to the final doom of the 
heathen world, a power of appeal to the people of 
God sufficient to impel them to all possible labors and 
sufferings necessary to make known the way of eternal 
life to every pagan on the face of the globe? Have they 
been greatly moved by this fact of overwhelming import- 
ance? How much have the Baptists of the Northern 
States, numbering eight hundred thousand, contributed to 
aid in sending the gospel to the vast multidude who have 
passed to the awards of the eternal world since the Union 
met in Chicago (1890), one year ago? If we allow to 
these twenty millions their due share of our contributions 
according to their number, it will appear that the members 
of our churches have given, on an average, not to exceed 
tw T o cents for rescuing from hell a number of our race 
equal to one-third of the population of the United States. 
Is not this an amazing fact ? Does it not seem incred- 
ible? Does it not furnish a moral demonstration that 
the idea of the exposure to everlasting punishment of the 
pagan world has but an almost inappreciable influence 
upon the great body of Christian people? 

Brethren, I would submit the matter to you; I would 
ask you each one to state, clearly and fully to his own 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 71 

mind, the considerations which render it credible that 
the Baptists, represented by the Union, believe what they 
profess to believe in regard to the final doom of the 
heathen world, and yet give on an average not to exceed 
one cent a week, to send the knowledge of the way of 
eternal life to a billion heathen, and not to exceed two 
cents to rescue from perdition the twenty millions whose 
day of probation has closed since the last aniversary 
of the Union. Would it not seem difficult to find eight 
hundred thousand non-Christian men, of average natural 
benevolence, who would not give as much, if necessary, 
to prevent the everlasting misery of an equal number of 
irrational creatures? Is it a matter of wonder that the 
world does not believe in hell, or that it does not believe 
that the orthodox churches believe that the heathen " shall 
go away into eternal punishment !" Do you say that for 
the world to deny that Christians believe what they pro- 
fess to believe on this point, is to charge them with the 
most culpable insincerity — a charge which involves, 
logically, universal historical skepticism, rendering it 
irrational to believe in the existence of faith and goodness 
among men ? True, but we would inquire if the charge 
involved in the other alternative is less damaging — the 
charge well grounded, of continued practical indifference 
on the part of the great majority of the members of all 
evangelical churches to the eternal welfare of a thousand 
million of their fellow-men, whom they profess to love, and 
whom they are bound by the most sacred obligations to 
love as they do themselves. 

We would not have you misunderstand us at this point 
— to regard us as doubting the reality or undervaluing 
the importance of salvation as escape from the retributions 



72 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of the future world. We believe that everlasting punish- 
ment will last forever; and we believe this awful truth 
because it is taught in the Bible ; and we believe it is 
taught in the Bible because it is a fact in the universe ; 
and we believe it is a fact in the universe because the in- 
finite God, in the plenitude of his resources, could not 
prevent its existence, acting, as it behooves him to act, in 
accordance with the immutable principle of his holy 
nature; and we believe that this truth ought to have the 
same place of relative importance in the instructions of 
the pulpit which it has in the Bible. And yet we affirm 
that Christ did not dwell chiefly upon salvation as per- 
taining to the future w r orld, but as a good to be realized 
here, through the reign of love in the souls of men, con- 
straining them to grateful and self-sacrificing labors that 
the will of God might be done everywhere on earth as in 
heaven. Salvation is deliverance from sin, and sin is of 
all evils the essence and the sum. "It brings present 
disgrace and ruin to body and soul, to home and country ; 
it breeds distrust ; it enervates manhood and w r omanhood; 
it incites to murderous revenge ; it arrays class against class ; 
it kindles the fires of volcanic social hate ; it is a menace 
to peace, to social order, and to international amity ; 
and from all this there is salvation only by that personal 
integrity and social righteousness which are the gifts of 
God to man through Jesus Christ." Salvation in this 
world involves salvation in the world to come ; the king- 
dom of God on earth is the foundation of the everlasting 
kingdom of God in the heavens ; and in the measure that 
salvation is wrought out here, and the kingdom of God ex- 
tends among men, will the end be accomplished which 
Christ set before his disciples as the object of constant and 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 73 

paramount devotion. The whole ministry of Christ was 
a ministry of love to all the sinful, sorrowful, lost sons of 
men. He was moved with compassion for the multitude 
because he saw them " in distress," " scattered abroad as 
sheep having no shepherd," living mean, ignoble, wicked 
lives, ignorant of God and of the place which they occupy 
in his infinite heart, with latent spiritual powers capable of 
development, with solemn responsibilities of moral agents, 
with features of the divine image not yet wholly effaced and 
that might be restored. How strongly did he urge, by 
word and deed, in life and death, the duty of self-sacrific- 
ing love for men, not merely for the souls of men, but for 
men, women, and children, in all the relations of life ; and 
how impressively did he emphasize, in the sublime pro- 
gramme of the judgment day, the decisive importance of 
deeds of love and mercy. " Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." 
" Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these, ye 
did it not unto me." "Come, ye blessed of my Father." 
" Depart, ye cursed." Who are the brethren of Christ in this 
j udgment programme ? His disciples ? Yes, but not these 
alone. For the event which he describes is that of the gen- 
eral judgment, when all nations, all the generations which 
shall have thronged the globe, w T ill stand before his judg- 
ment seat, among whom there will be countless millions who 
never saw one of his disciples. The brethren of the Son 
of Man are "the poor, suffering, sorrow-laden sons of 
men, and the principle on which the judgment proceeds is 
that as men treat those, they would have treated the Judge 
had they had the opportunity." 

Are not the heathen among those who are in greatest 
need of the offices of love ? Are they not hungry, fam- 
7 



74 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

ishing for lack of the bread of life ? Are they not sick, 
consumed by the fever and leprosy of sin ? Are they 
not poor, bankrupt in estate and character ? Are thev 
not in prison, compassed about by walls which they can 
neither scale, nor dig beneath, nor break through? If 
this great passage does not teach that men are saved by 
works of love, it certainly does teach that a faith which 
does not produce these works is vain and dead, and that 
those and those only who possess the spirit and do the 
works described by Christ, are justified in regarding 
themselves, or in believing that he regards them, as his 
true disciples. The question for us to answer, as Mr. 
Spurgeon is reported to have suggested, is not, May the 
heathen be saved without the gospel, but, Will we be 
saved if we do not carry the gospei to the heathen ? And 
it may be confidently affirmed that those who cannot be 
moved with compassion in view of the wrath of God 
which has come upon the heathen, will not be moved with 
compassion in view of that which is to come upon them ; 
that those who will not make sacrifices to rescue the 
heathen from the hells in which they are in this world, 
will not make sacrifices to rescue them from the hell of 
the future world, which seems far-off, vague, unreal. 

What, then, is the greatest need of the church of to- 
day? We answer, a divine enthusiasm; a mighty pas- 
sion for the kingdom of God on earth, embracing all the 
populations of the globe — all China, all India, all Africa, 
all Europe, all America, and all the islands of all the 
oceans ; a kingdom as wide-reaching as the manifold life 
of man, involving obedience to the will of God in all 
positions and relations — in the sphere of the family, of 
s >eial life, of business life, of political life; a kingdom 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. VO 

whose progress shall be marked by the growing consecra- 
tion of the people of God, the preaching of the gospel to 
the poor, the overthrow of oppression, the extermination 
of drunkenness, and the passions of lust, and the greed 
of gain, the destruction of superstition, idolatry, and all 
forms of infidelity, the sway of truth, and love, and 
righteousness over all the earth, a divine enthusiasm, a 
a mighty passion of love and loyalty, impelling the sol- 
diers of Jesus Christ to conquer for him all the king- 
doms of the globe on which his cross of shame and 
agony was set up, and from which he uttered the cry of 
expiring and redeeming love. 

2. We mention, as a second cause, the failure of the 
evangelical churches to apply at home the principle of 
comity which they recognize in their foreign mission 
work. 

It is estimated that there is on an average one or- 
dained minister to every three hundred thousand of the 
pagan population of the world. There is good authority 
for the statement.that in China, and the population acces- 
sible to the American Board, there is only one missionary 
for every six hundred thousand people. Moreover, there are 
whole nations, numbering scores of millions, in which no 
disciples have been made. We are confident that all who 
have any adequate conception of the interests involved, 
will admit that the two following statements are thor- 
oughly reasonable : (1) " That the Christian churches of 
the world should be satisfied with nothing less than send- 
ing out one ordained missionary for every fifty thousand 
of the accessible pagan population of the world." (2) 
" That no church ought to call itself thoroughly aggres- 
sive and evangelical that does not expend for the support 



76 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 



of missions at large at least one dollar for every five it 
expends for itself." 

What would compliance with these propositions require 
of the evangelical churches of the world ? Twenty thou- 
sand ordained missionaries instead of four thousand, as at 
present; an immediate reinforcement of sixteen thousand, 
of which the quota of our denomination at the North 
should be not less than one thousand two hundred, making 
our foreign force of ordained ministers at least one thou- 
sand five hundred. This would require our churches to 
give annually five times as much as the committee planned 
for expending during the current year, as authorized at 
the last annual meeting of the Union, or two million five 
hundred thousand dollars, a sum which, large as it may 
seem, is four hundred thousand dollars less than would 
come annually into the treasury of the Union if the 
members of our churches should give on an average one 
cent a day for the cause of foreign missions. 

We ask you to consider most seriously the vast relative 
waste in men and money involved in the condition of 
things existing in all Northern States, the part of the 
country represented by the Union. 

To illustrate the matter which we have in mind, let us 
take an example of numberless cases, with many of which 
every one is familiar. Here are five fields, each having a 
population of one thousand five hundred, and five evangel- 
ical ministers, — one Baptist, one Presbyterian, one Con- 
gregationalist, one Episcopalian, and one Methodist, — 
twenty-five ordained ministers preaching the gospel to 
seven thousand five hundred people, while on the other 
side of the globe there are twenty-five fields, each having 
a population of three hundred thousand, and but one 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 77 

ordained minister ; twenty-five men preaching the word 
to seven million five hundred thousand people, one thou- 
sand times as many as are under the care of the same 
number of religious teachers at home. We ask now, in 
all earnestness, Would it not be vastly more reasonable 
and Christian, if these several denominations would 
apply at home the principle of comity which they recog- 
nize abroad, keeping five of these ministers here and 
sending twenty to aid their brethren, each of whom is 
confronted by nearly a third of a million pagans ? If it 
would be wrong in the sight of God to put five ministers 
of different evangelical denominations in a village of one 
thousand five hundred people in China, or Africa, or Bur- 
ma, restricting their labors to that locality, is it not wrong 
and equally wrong, yea, wrong in a greater degree, to do 
the same thing here, while hundreds of millions of our 
fellow-men are living and dying in the darkness and mis- 
ery of heathenism ? The field is the world. The whole 
world is missionary ground. Every city, every village, 
every neighborhood, in which there is one man, or woman, 
or child who is not a citizen of the kingdom of God, is a mis- 
sionary field. We challenge any man to adduce reasons 
which will approach to a justification of the course of the 
Christian churches in distributing their forces over this 
common missionary ground — the whole world — in such 
an extraordinary uneven way, putting one minister in 
charge of three hundred people, many of whom are 
Christians, and another, of no greater ability, in charge 
of three hundred thousand, of whom all, or nearly all, 
are pagans. If the great evangelical denominations would 
act on the principle of comity here suggested, it would be 
an easy matter for them to send an immediate reinforce- 



78 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

ment of sixteen thousand men, so that there might be one 
minister to every fifty thousand pagans ; and it would be 
an undertaking of no difficulty for us to send our quota 
of one thousand two hundred, and to furnish them with 
adequate support. 

Is it a violation of truth or charity to say that the 
existing state of things is a great religious scandal, an 
offense against God, and a crime against our brethren of 
the heathen world, sitting in the region and shadow of 
death, perishing for the lack of the light of life? 

What are the lessons taught by these facts ? What are 
the duties which they should impress upon -us? One 
duty, and that of paramount importance, as clear to our 
mind as if it were written on the heavens in words of fire, 
is this : That the evangelical churches ought to emphasize 
strongly all points of doctrinal agreement and all methods 
of Christian work in which they can unite, coming as 
closely together as possible, and presenting a united front 
to the enemies of God. Consider, we beseech you, the 
most obvious facts of our condition. Here are the evan- 
gelical churches, in all but a few millions, confronted at 
home by three hundred million members of two powerful 
and thoroughly corrupt organizations, — the Roman and 
Greek hierarchies, — and by vast masses of men connected 
with no churches, dominated by sensuality, greed of gain, 
lust of power, and social distrust and hate — tremendous 
principles of evil which have brought to untimely de- 
struction cities and nations, many and great, all down the 
ages ; and abroad, confronted by a billion heathen, all in- 
volved in deepest moral ignorance and most debasing 
superstition, and half of them held in the thralldom of 
false philosophical systems of extraordinary power ; and 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 7U 

joined with these forces, both at home and abroad, the 
spiritual hosts of wickedness, under the leadership of the 
god of this world. In such a war as this, fighting the 
organized evil forces of earth and hell, the combined 
powers of " the world, the flesh, and the devil " united 
in the strongest compacts, shall we not all, soldiers of 
Jesus Christ, stand together in the closest relations 
possible, help each other heartily on the march and in the 
deadly assault, cheer each other amid the fire and storm 
of battle, knowing that the Leader is one, the army one, 
the foe one, the final triumph one, the eternal glory one, 
— the glory due unto him who is " worthy to receive the 
power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, 
and blessing; ? " 

But we hear objections, many and plausible, urged 
against what some may be pleased to call an impracticable 
and fanatical appeal. 

1. It is said that we, as a denomination, hold the truth, 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ; that it is of 
supreme importance that we secure the widest possible 
acceptance of our views at home ; that we dare not com- 
promise with error by consenting to -give up any com- 
munity, however small, to the care of Pedobaptist 
churches, etc., etc. 

The question, then, for us to consider is reduced to 
this : Shall we give over more of the population of our 
country to the Pedobaptists, or more of the heathen 
world to the devil ? Are we to regard the errors of all 
Christian churches, other than our own, as more destruct- 
ive than the errors of heathenism ? 

And, then, if we have the truth in its purity and 
fullness, are Ave not, of all Christian bodies in the world, 



80 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

under the greatest obligation to go to the regions beyond ? 
Surely, the very fact of the purity of our creed immensely 
enhances the claims of duty resting upon us to secure its 
world-wide acceptance. What an inspiring and uplifting 
event it would be to the whole Christian world, if we 
should send out at once the number of missionaries sug- 
gested, — twelve hundred, — moved by the spirit of apos- 
tolic self-sacrifice and heroism, whose labors might be the 
means, under the blessing of God, of winning to our pure 
faith tens and hundreds of thousands in heathen lands, 
creating at many points, as among the Telugus, Baptist 
communities numbering fifty thousand ! Furthermore, is 
it not evident that the fundamental principle of our 
people ought to constrain them to go, in large and 
increasing numbers, to the nations of the pagan world? 
For the fundamental principle of our churches, that of 
which we boast and in which we glory, is loyalty to Jesus 
Christ, implicit obedience to his commands. We discard 
and repudiate all assumed authority of a human source, 
whether of popes, or councils, or traditions, or creeds. 
But loyalty to Christ, in order to be such in truth and 
not in name only, must include obedience to all his com- 
mands, especially to those which are of supreme import- 
ance, among which stands the Great Commission. Does 
our action as a denomination justify or contradict our 
profession of loyalty ? What is the command of Jesus 
Christ, as distinct and imperative as if we heard his 
words ringing out from the height of heaven ? Is it not, 
"Go ye, Baptists, preach the gospel to every creature, 
make disciples of all nations? " Is it not the belief of 
our churches, that the Great Commission was given 
originally, not to Presbyterians, or Congregationalists, or 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 81 

Episcopalians, or Methodists, but exclusively to Baptists, 
— the very people of whom we claim to be the only living 
representatives? The first body of Baptists were right 
loyal to their Lord ; they went everywhere preaching the 
word ; they carried the good news to all quarters of the 
known world. How is it with the people known as 
Baptists in the last quarter of the nineteenth century ? 
Is their obedience such as to justify their claim to be the 
true successors of those early disciples of Christ? Have 
they discharged, are they now discharging, in any true 
and worthy sense, the high and imperative duty imposed 
by the risen and glorified Redeemer, loyalty to whom 
they claim as their distinction and honor ? Is it obedi- 
ence to the command, " Go, make disciples of all nations," 
for a people, numbering eight hundred thousand, to con- 
tribute four hundred thousand dollars a year, — on an 
average, one cent a week, — to give to a billion pagans a 
knowledge of the incarnate Son of God, who loved them 
and gave himself for them, and through whom alone they 
can attain eternal life ? 

Brethren, mere profession will not justify our claim of 
special loyalty to Christ, nor will obedience to his require- 
ments in the matters of baptism, communion, and church 
government justify it while the great majority of the 
members of our churches are in a state of mutiny against 
the Great Commission, saying, if not in words, yet 
practically, We will not ourselves preach the gospel to the 
pagan nations, nor will we make sacrifices to aid others in 
the work of preaching to them. 

How is it that the belief has come to prevail so widely 
among all Christian people, that there is an enormous 
difference, in culpability and danger, between disobedience 



82 CENTENARY missionary addresses. 

to Christ in rejecting what he requires them to believe, 
and disobedience to Christ in disregarding what he com- 
mands them to do ? 

Why is it that the heresy of unbelief is regarded with 
such apprehension or alarm, while the heresy of inaction 
is viewed with comparative indifference ? Is faith with- 
out works any better than works without faith? Are 
they not alike dead and displeasing to God — equally vain 
and perilous? To the heresy of inaction, far more than 
to the heresy of unbelief, is due the deplorable fact that 
the midnight darkness of heathenism still envelops 
nearly two-thirds of the population of the globe. What, 
then, shall we do? The alternatives are: Either cease 
to claim to be the true successors of the earliest Baptist 
churches, or obey, with the devotion which characterized 
them, the Lord's command, u Go, preach the gospel to 
the whole creation." 

2. But we hear another objection urged with great 
frequency and confidence. It is said that the United 
States is destined to be the leading nation of the future, 
that it occupies a position of immeasurable importance in 
the world's history ; so that whatever we do, or fail to do, 
in relation to the evangelization of the pagan nations, we 
must seek, by all means in our power, to make our nation 
thoroughly Christian. What shall we say of this utter- 
ance, heard everywhere, especially on anniversary occas- 
ions, in the pulpit and on the platform ? Is it not largely 
an utterance of national conceit, inspired by national 
pride and selfishness, and utterly opposed to the example 
and teaching of Christ and his apostles? 

Let us notice : (1) The ruling motive force of Chris- 
tianity is love; and it is the nature, the irrepressible 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 83 

instinct, of Christian love to help the most helpless, the 
deformed in body, the feeble-minded, the moral refuse of 
society for whom none care. 

(2) Jesus gathered around him the weakest, the lowest, 
the "publicans and harlots," the social outcasts, the 
nobodies of his time, according to the prevailing standards 
of the world. 

(3) Does the Great Commission read, Go ye therefore, 
make disciples of the leading nations, preach the gospel 
to those who hold positions of great strategic importance? 
On the contrary, Matthew and Mark (Rev. Ver.), read 
very differently, as follows : " Go ye therefore, and make 
disciples of all the nations : " " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to the whole creation." 

(4) The history of the church justifies the method of 
Christ. Christianity has won its most notable victories 
among people of little account in the judgment of the 
civilized nations, as among the Karens, the Telngus, the 
Sandwich Islanders, the ancient inhabitants of the British 
Isles, who, though they were regarded by the Romans as 
too stupid and brutish to serve as slaves, have built up 
the most magnificent empire known to history — an empire 
which has endured for a thousand years, and is influ- 
encing now, as never before, the thought, and life, and 
movements of the world. 

(5) The only principle of missionary strategy recognized 
by Paul, the foremost missionary of all the ages, — as 
appears from the inspired record of his life, — was to preach 
the gospel where men were thickest. And for the adoption 
of this principle he had divine warrant ; for when he was 
at Corinth, the Lord said unto him in the night by a 
vision : " Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy 



84 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee 
to harm thee ; for " — what did the Lord say ? Corinth is 
a city of culture, the eye of Greece, occupying a position 
of great strategic importance ? No, no ; but — u no man 
shall set on thee to harm thee, for I have much people in 
this city." 

Oh, brethren, can we not hear our Lord calling us one 
by one by name, and saying, " I have much people in 
China, much people in Africa, much people on all the 
continents and islands of the globe?" Let us take 
deeply into our minds and hearts Christ's idea of the 
people ! the people ! the people ! He accounted man 
transcendently great, not because of the external distinc- 
tions which gain for him recognition and honor in the 
world, but because of what he is as man, the divine 
image in him, his inherent powers of intellect, heart, and 
will, which haverevealed but an insignificant fraction of 
their latent energy, even in the case of those who stand 
forth in history as the greatest of the sons of men, and to 
whose expansion and growth there is no goal this side of 
the infinitude of God. In Christ's esteem, all men, of 
whatever race, or rank, or condition, are of equal worth 
in virtue of their divine endowments and immortal des- 
tination. 

The people have been of but little account in the past. 
It has been the great ones of the earth — emperors, kings, 
and nobles, the rich and the powerful; for these it has 
seemed that all things were made ; for these ihe people 
have labored, and suffered, and died like the beasts of 
the field. But thanks be unto God for the signs, multi- 
plying on every side, betokening the growing power of 
Christ's idea of the greatness of man as man, the worth 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 80 

and dignity of the people. It cannot be doubted that 
one of the chief causes of the agitations and revolutions 
which are taking place in all Christian nations, working 
tne disintegration and overthrow of institutions of social 
and political wrong which have survived the destruction^ 
of dynasties not a few, is the growing consciousness on 
the part of the people of their divine rights and powers 
of manhood ; their dignity as moral agents,' — deep calling 
unto deep, — the strivings and aspirations of the human 
soul, like the ceaseless ground-swell of the ocean, in re- 
sponse to the presence and quickening touch of the Spirit of 
God. And as the Christian idea — which is Christ's idea — 
of the people shall grow in power and splendor, it will 
mold more and more profoundly all social and politi- 
cal institutions, and will constrain all the disciples of 
Christ to labor with equal love, devotion, and joy for the 
temporal and eternal well-being of all men, irrespective 
of race, or nationality, or color, or sex, or social condition. 
But who knows that the United States is destined to 
be the leading nation of the future, that the Anglo-Saxon 
race will rule the coming ages? To whom has the assur- 
ance been given that God will not build up in China a 
kingdom far surpassing in intellectual and moral power 
the British Empire or the American Republic? Where 
is the prophet who can foretell the destiny of the " Dark 
Continent," having at the present time a population of 
two hundred and fifty millions — four times that of the 
United States ? Who can forecast the turnings and over- 
turnings which shall precede the coming of him whose 
right it is to reign, and who shall reign over all the 
nations of the earth ? It is urged that certain of the 
pagan nations and races have no future, that they are 
8 



86 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

worn out, their powers of expansion and growth ex- 
hausted ? We reply that the judgment of those who thus 
speak is certainly shallow, and probably false, because 
they fail to estimate adequately the restorative and re- 
creative power of Christianity. The error is like that 
involved in the conception of " a mechanical world and 
an outside God." The idea has widely prevailed that the 
material universe is a " closed system," — a system of 
finite forces, acting and reacting upon each other, exclud- 
ing all Divine causality, — its goal, quiescence and death. 
The conception is fundamentally false, because it does not 
include, as it should include, God as the universal and 
abiding ground of all being; and all life, as immanent and 
active in all chemical forces, in all vital forces, in all 
souls — " His almighty will energizing throughout creation, 
from the atom to the archangel." This view compels us 
to reject, as irrational and incredible, the notion that the 
goal of the material universe is quiescence and death, and 
to affirm that, through the immanent and energizing 
power of God, it will abide and pass on from lower to 
higher stages, " from the nebulous matter to the glory of 
the new heavens and the new earth." 

But God is in history in a sense infinitely more real 
and profound than he is in the realm of physical nature ; 
and hence we believe that there are no effete and worn- 
out peoples, no races whose powers of expansion and 
growth are permanently exhausted. For though the 
words of the apostle that " all live, and move, and have 
their being in God " declare a universal fact of history, 
yet, in these last times, God has entered, in Jesus Christ, 
into new and more vital relations with mankind, and is 
creating them anew by his Spirit, awakening and invigor- 



HINDRANCES AT HOME TO THE WORK. 87 

ating their dormant and paralyzed powers, thus enabling 
nations and races, as well as individuals, to enter upon a 
new career, far higher and grander than would have been 
possible to them before the advent. 

In concluding these remarks, we desire to say that we 
have spoken as truly and earnestly in behalf of the work of 
missions at home as of the work of missions abroad. 
The cause of home missions and the cause of foreign mis- 
sions are one in principle and one in interest. And, 
therefore, along with the motto, " America for Christ/' 
but high above it, we should place the motto, " The World 
for Christ/' And the speediest and the only infallible way 
to gain America for Christ is to give to the world's evan- 
gelization the place of supremacy, in labors and gifts, 
which it holds of right. This our churches, this the 
churches of other denominations, have lamentably failed 
to do. The most general and conspicuous act of disobedi- 
ence to Christ on the part of the Christian people of the 
United States, is their deliberate and persistent refusal to 
discharge the high and imperative duty to evangelize the 
pagan nations — a work for the accomplishment of which, 
within the period of the past twenty- five years, their re- 
sources in men and money have been ample. It is, in our 
judgment, no exaggeration to say that the Baptist churches 
of the Northern States could have done and ouo;ht to have 
done, during the past year, as much for the cause of foreign 
missions as has been done by all the evangelical churches 
embraced in the same portion of our country. 

Brethren, I would that one-half of the Baptist minis- 
ters at the North would give themselves to the work of 
evangelizing the heathen. Disastrous to our denomination 
at home, do you say ? Impossible. It would bring to 



88 CENTEXARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

our churches an unparalleled degree of prosperity ; the 
places left vacant would be filled by men called of God 
from the ranks of the laity ; ministers of other denomi- 
nations would be won to us, convinced that we were hold- 
ing the truth in its purity, and living it with apostolic 
fidelity; Christians of other names, moved by the power 
of our example, would obey in a worthy manner the 
Lord's final command ; and this powerful missionary 
" movement " would confound infidelity at home, would 
convince the world that Christianity is, indeed, what it 
claims to be, and would mightily advance the kingdom of 
God in all parts of our country. 

May the Divine Spirit enable us to penetrate to the 
heart of these great paradoxes in the kingdom of grace — 
that we save our life, not by seeking, but by losing it ; 
that we become rich, not by keeping, but by giving; that 
we become great in moral power among men, not by self- 
assertion, but by self-abnegation, by self-sacrifice, from 
love to others ; that it is through our poverty that we are 
to enrich the world, according to the way of him who, 
" though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, that 
ye through his povery might become rich." 



VII. 

THE APPKOPRIATE MISSIONARY GIVING. 

REV. C. H. MOSCRIP, D. D., 

Pastor First Baptist Church, Rockford, III. 

In Matt. 10 : 8, "As a gift ye received, as a gift impart," 
the Bible Union Version (Improved Edition) makes a 
change which demands a word of explanation, as I use 
the words as the basis of this address. 

The Greeks sometimes used the accusative of a noun as an 
adverb. This was done in the case of the word for gift. The 
force of the word as a noun, however, was not lost. In this 
case the real meaning is brought out more clearly by giv- 
ing a literal translation, as is done in the version quoted. 

This translation brings out very clearly the importance 
of method. The command of the gospel is "Cro." "Go 
and do many mighty works." The believer is to go and 
do in order that the sinner may be saved. Modern 
Christianity has laid especial emphasis upon these two 
phases of her work. There is, as a result, much going 
and doing and even giving in the name of Christ to-day 
that fails to advance his cause. While these are import- 
ant, the way in which they are to be done is equally 
essential. Here we have failed. Here Jesus made no 
mistake. He commands the twelve not only to go and 
give, but to so go and to so give that those to w T hom they 
give shall feel the gospel atmosphere — shall receive the 
gospel as it came to the twelve themselves. The real 
thing in Christian work is elusive. The freshness with 

89 



90 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

which it first came to men is lost. Christ here enjoins 
upon his disciples the reproduction of this. They were to 
so give the blessings of salvation as to cause those to whom 
the blessings came to recognize that salvation was a gift. 

Eternal life is a gift. We are saved by grace. Free- 
dom from sin and death is by ransom. It is because 
" God so loved the world that he gave " his son to save the 
lost, that we are to make our giving embody this wonder- 
ful fact and reinforce this divine influence. This age is 
the dispensation of grace. Grace now reigns. Standing 
in the morning shadows of this the gospel day, Jesus 
commands his servants to emphasize the fact that it is 
God's purpose to save without money and without price. 
Sovereign grace bestows freely the gift of eternal life in 
Jesus Christ. There are difficulties here. God is holy. 
His justice knows no shadow of turning. He dooms the 
impenitent sinner to eternal death. He is the stern Judge 
who will hold every soul to strict account for the deeds 
done in the body. These things must be preached. Can 
they be harmonized with the doctrines of free grace ? I 
am sure there was no conflict on these points in the 
eternal counsels. We need not try to reconcile them now. 
Jesus says, " I gave you eternal life. J ask you to give 
to others as you received it. As it came to you it made 
prominent the free grace of God. As you give it to 
others see that you make this truth appear." 

We have, then, as our theme : The Appropriate Mis- 
sionary Giving Emphasizes the Freeness of Divine 
Grace. 

1. In its Revelation of God. 

(1) Missionary giving is a revelation of God. The 



THE APPROPRIATE MISSIONARY GIVING. 91 

Christian is a witness. Every act submitted to the in- 
spection of the world springs from hidden sources. Our 
words and acts show what these sources are. We have 
not made the most of our office as witnesses. Our giving 
tells of our sense of God's goodness. It shows the 
strength of God's hold on the Christian's affections. It 
magnifies the power of God over the believer. God is 
made known as he appears to those w 7 ho know him. 

(2) God is revealed in the reproduction of the Divine 
giving. God is revealed in the word first as the summa- 
tion of all powder. To this is added the idea of lordship 
as the outgrowth of the divine self-existence. In the 
.New Testament he is seen as Father and Saviour. In 
this progress or growth of the idea of God he passed 
from being simply Creator, or Creator and King, to the 
idea of beneficence. He is no less Creator. He does not 
cease from the exercise of his Lordship, but he presents 
himself as the " God of all grace." He spends himself 
that he may create man anew in his own image. His 
giving is the logical result of his being. He makes 
salvation a gift because he so loved. The present dis- 
pensation is the visible expression of this divine principle. 
The gift of a believer in so far as it is right will exhibit 
this law of the divine life. It will imitate, illustrate, and 
translate the feeling and purpose of God. God is brought 
before the lost as the lover of the soul. Perishing 
humanity feels the reality of God's love and the tender- 
ness of his purpose. 

(3) It is a message from God. God speaks through 
his witness. Modern Christianity has been dominated 
by this idea. So strong has been the tendency that we 
have been in danger of thinking that this w r as all. God 



92 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSE 

has blessed a faithful witness. He has multiplied our 
work. His servants have seemed to lean on this as the 
secret of success. There is in all our effort an influence 
that eludes our analysis. God seems to use and honor in- 
directions. Much that we think should yield large results 
comes to naught. Often the least thing brings such large 
results. Somehow God makes his meaning clear. For 
example, Jesus nowhere gives a complete definition of the 
Trinity, nor do we anywhere in the word find an explana- 
tion of the union of the two natures in Christ. Still, 
from what Christ has said, and what he was, the early 
Christians were assured that the Godhead was three in 
one, and that Christ was both divine and human so 
thoroughly that neither destroyed the integrity of the 
other. Now, in somewhat the same Avay the giving of 
the believer is made to speak God's personal message to a 
lost soul. 

This revelation belongs to servanthood and stewardship. 
Perhaps we have not made all we might of these. 
Here, however, some of Christianity's glorious victories 
have been won. The believer is a servant and a steward. 
The things said are true, even though they may not be 
all the truth. 

We come to a deeper truth when we see that the appro- 
priate missionary giving emphasizes the freeness of grace 
because, 

2. It is a Manifestation of Life. 

Dr. Mabie has not only struck a new note, but he has 
planted himself upon and lifted modern missions to a dis- 
tinctly higher plane, when he says : " We must cease look- 
ing for the motive of missions in the need and degradation 
of the heathen and find it in the Christian heart." This 



THE APPROPRIATE MISSIONARY GIVING. 93 

is God's thought. God is not quite content that we should 
always be servants, stewards, or even ambassadors. He 
has called us to be sons. 

(1) The* gift of grace is eternal life. Paul says so in 
Rom. 6:23 : " The gift of God is eternal life in Christ 
Jesus." Jesus says (John 10:10): "I came that they 
may have life." John says of Jesus (1 : 4), "In him 
was life," and again (1 : 12), "As many as received him, 
to them gave he the right to become children of God," and 
again in (1 John 3 : 1), " Behold w^hat manner of love the 
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called 
children of God." Once more (1 John 5 : 12), " He that 
hath the son hath life." The whole of salvation isthe giv- 
ing and receiving of life. At some time in" the convicted 
sinner's experience God puts the seed of the new life into 
his heart. To believers, in some true sense, God has com- 
mitted this work. In some way missionary giving is, as 
the Divine giving, an exercise of life. 

(2) This gift of life demands the conquest of the world 
for Christ. The reception of the new life introduces to 
new relations. It is in its nature a new disposition. , It 
is sometimes said that a person cannot be a Christian and 
not be interested in the work of missions. This is not the 
best way in which to state it. The believer, made one 
with Christ, a new creature, has a new nature, relation- 
ships, and purpose. He is not Christ's pet lamb to feed 
out of the great Shepherd's hand, but Christ's younger 
brother, to partake of his power and to undertake his work. 
Weak, feeble, tottering he is, but possessed of Christ's 
life, interested in the same things, doing the same work. 
Having received the divine nature he feels something of 
God's antagonism to sin. His disposition, the permanent 



94 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

trend of his purpose, is to overcome the world for 
Christ. This is the thought underlying the prayer, " Thy 
kingdom come." Power to say " Our Father," is son- 
ship. Then the first cry of sonship : " Hallowed be 
thy name." Then the activity of sons to secure the 
Father's honor, " Thv kingdom come." Faith, the 
motive force in sonship, necessitates the conquest 
of the world for Christ. This is the demand of 
every converted soul. Efface Christianity; take away 
every Bible ; turn the churches into dance-houses ; let 
wickedness rule ; leave only one true child of God in all 
the earth ; let that one be chained in the deepest dungeon 
Rome can find in which to hide her victims from the eyes 
of men ; let him be old, decrepit, dying ; and yet that 
single child of God, by the power of the undying faith 
that cries to God, " Thy kingdom come," might so sum- 
mon the forces of God that the world should be won to 
him again. Such, the power of the divine life, is the 
force lodged in the appropriate missionary giving. It is 
life manifested. 

3. Such giving Emphasizing the Freeness of Divine 
Grace becomes a Propagating Power. 

Just where lies the power of the Christian life to repro- 
duce itself? At what point in its activities does God add 
his touch to cause the dead soul to rise in newness of life ? 
Many answers are in the air to-day. Many earnest phil- 
anthropists insist that money, rightly used, will heal all 
human ills. Mr. Stead, the apostle of the nineteenth 
century humanitarianism, declares that there must be "A 
Mission to Millionaires." They must, for their own good, 
be made to use their own money for the common good. 
Christian leaders are taking much the same ground. 



THE APPROPRIATE MISSIONARY GIVING. 95 

" Money is concrete power," says Dr. Josiah Strong. In 
one of the most remarkable contributions to recent mis- 
sionary literature, viz., the chapter on " Money and the 
Kingdom," in " Our Country,"' l he pleads for the Chris- 
tianization of this power. Yet only once does he touch 
upon the real element of power in Christian missions and 
the true source from which to expect the Christianization 
of money. And here he speaks of it only incidentally and 
as a result. He shows very clearly and justly that every 
penny of Christian money should be used so as to honor 
God. He then says : " i But/ says some one, i that prin- 
ciple demands daily self-denial/ Undoubtedly." He 
adds : " And that fact is the Master's seal set to this truth, 
' If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross daily, and follow me } " (Luke 9 : 23). 
In other words, Dr. Strong says give as stewards and 
servants, recognizing God's right to the money, and by so 
doino; reveal him to the world. This is rischt as far as it 
goes. The words, " As a gift ye received, as a gift im- 
part," however, introduce a strictly higher principle. A 
servant or steward does not administer upon his own, but 
his Lord's goods. But we have received not of God's 
goods alone, but of his life. A steward cannot sacrifice 
self. This is a function of life. Indeed, the very nature 
of the new life is self-sacrifice. When Jesus uttered the 
words just quoted concerning sacrifice, he spoke of that 
which was essential to the Christian life. In his own life 
and death he set forth the eternal constitution of the king:- 
clom. He made the cross the sign of real being. Death 
and life, life out of death, this is God's order. In God's 

JRev. Ed., p. 239. 



96 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

economy the freeness of grace is the power that repro- 
duces life. We have here then : 

(1) The nature of the believer's life. This life is from 
God and is divine. Its deathless purpose is to honor 
God in the conquest of the world for Christ. Its ruling 
disposition is one with the purpose of grace in the heart 
of its author, God. In virtue of this purpose, God gave 
the Son to die that men might live. Its effective method 
is self-sacrifice. The believer by the very nature of his 
life must repeat the sacrifice by which he came into pos- 
session of eternal life. As Christ went down into the 
jaws of death that we might be born again, so are we, 
though at an infinite remove, to enter into a death struggle 
for the reproduction of this life among men. When 
Jesus speaks of self-denial, w T hen we look upon the ordi- 
nance of baptism, when we read Paul's words, " I confess 
I die daily," or, " I bear in my body the marks of the 
Lord Jesus," when we think of the fellowship of the 
mystery, or of suffering together with him, we see the 
truth that death, self-sacrifice, self-effacement is the deep- 
est principle of the eternal life we possess. As John, 
looking at our victory, says : " They overcame him by the 
blood of the Lamb, and bv the word of their testimony ; and 
they loved not their lives unto the death" Every step of 
Christ's earthly life is at once command, example, and in- 
spiration to us to reproduce for others the experience in 
which life began for us. Self-sacrifice is not an accident. 
It is not a strange freak of God's activity. It is a mani- 
festation of grace. It is a governing principle of the 
eternal gift of life. In its exercise lies life's propagating 
power. In it God lodges carrying force, so that souls 
through our struggles, by his power, are born again. 



THE APPROPRIATE MISSIONARY GIVING. 97 

(2) The nature of self-sacrifice. Our true giving 
must reproduce the freeness of divine grace. But in its 
nature, giving is self-sacrifice, and self-sacrifice is struggle. 

It is first of all God's struggle with us. It is the con- 
flict of the divine life with the undelivered remnants of 
sin r and the unsubdued dispositions of selfishness that 
remain in us. It is a repetition of the experience re- 
lated in the seventh of Romans. It is God's conquer- 
ing touch on our lives, the Spirit's call to better things, 
the intense strain of growing pains as life seeks to break 
the bands of death. 

It is also our struggle with God. God incites us to 

CO 

strive with him. It is the fai^h-conflict which is victory. 
It is the prayer-wrestle at Jabbok. It is the Gethsem- 
ane agony. James expresses a wealth of meaning in the 
words, " the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man 
availeth much." It is a whole philosophy of life. 
Read it again as perhaps it should read : " The in- 
wrought prayer of a good man is very effective." God 
brings us to this struggle before our giving is fitted for 
his work. 

And then self-sacrifice becomes God's struggle through 
us for the impartation of the new life to others. In this 
sense, the true giving is that exercise in which life passes 
over from us to others. It is not only a revelation of 
God, and a manifestation of life, but it becomes a propa- 
gating power. It is the reproductive function of Chris- 
tianitv. 

Brethren, along this way lies victory. " When Zion tra- 
vaileth she shall bring forth." So giving, God will charge 
the message with power. In our abandonment to self-sac- 
rifice lies the salvation of a lost world. This flow of life 
9 



98 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

will carry with it all the money needed. When we rise 
to these divine heights, the treasuries of Christians will 
be opened, and fragrant as the box of precious nard will 
our gifts pass to the ends of the earth. The freshness of 
the divine life would be felt as in apostolic times. Life 
offered thus would be gladly received. The light of Him 
who is the life of men, would make the darkest heart of 
heathendom the brightest place this side of heaven. " As 
a gift ye received, as a gift impart." 



VIII. 

THE CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPON- 
SIBILITY. 

EEV. O. P. EACHES, D. D., 
Pastor First Baptist Church, Hightstown, N. J. 

The aim of the centennial movement is not the raising 
of one million dollars. That is a small and insignificant 
and incidental thing. That would concern itself with 
pocket books and columns of figures. The aim is and 
ought to be transcendently higher. It is the raising not 
of money, but of men. It is a holy endeavor to raise 
the membership to higher levels of thinking and living, 
to create wider horizons of outlook, to beget new concep- 
tions of duty and responsibility. The aim must be, pri- 
marily, not to collect money but to cultivate men. We 
do not need to add any new words to our language in 
order to make ten-fold larger members, to add ten-fold to 
the effectiveness of our members, to increase ten-fold the 
contribution of our churches. We have over one hundred 
thousand words in our language, ready for use. We 
need not new words, but a new emphasis, a new meaning. 
We need to enlarge the meaning and force of that one 
word, Responsibility. If we could, for twelve months, 
see the length and breadth and depth of this one word, 
responsibility (obligation) it would make a new era for us 
as a baptized people, would create a new view of old things, 
more men abroad, more money, more prayer, more interest 

99 



100 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

at home in all the things that concern the kingdom of 
Christ. 

1. The development of spiritual power. What shall 
be the outcome of the present movement, the twelve 
months of organized effort for missions ? If it shall 
beget emotion, awaken enthusiasm, there may be one 
million dollars in the treasury, but this will be all. If 
there shall be a new conception of our standing before 
God as under obligation, of our standing alongside of 
God in loving and holy service, as partners and fellow- 
workers in the salvation of the world, if there shall be a 
new sense of the pressure from above, if there shall be a 
new impelling power from within, then there will be the 
creation of so much moral and spiritual capital perma- 
nently created for the missionary enterprise. And this 
will mean the addition in one year of one million to our 
membership. It was Emerson, the poetic, dreamy Emer- 
son, who was talking to practical farmers about more 
productiveness for their farms. He said : " If you want 
to double your farms in size, to add another farm to your 
present farm, plough deeper, there is another farm beneath." 
If we desire, with a deep desire, to double our member- 
ship, to more than double our contributions, it will be 
needful to double the sense of personal obligation. Per- 
sonal obligation to what? To the heathen sitting in 
darkness and groping after God ? No. Personal obliga- 
tion to the church that it may not be distanced by others? 
No. Personal obligation to the missionary cause, illu- 
mined by the names of saintly men and women, by com- 
munities lifted up from savagery to holy living? No. 
There must be personal obligation, simply and alone to 
the one person, Jesus Christ. Jesus makes salvation, 



CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. 101 

awakens love, creates service, places a yoke upon the 
neck. Jesus Christ, rightly understood, means obligation. 
2. The Christ spirit will beget the Christ life. The 
feeling of obligation, of responsibility must come, not 
from without, but from within. The true motive for 
Christian living, for Christian missions, cannot be created 
by heaping facts upon the mind, by tables of statistics, by 
parading the millions of China and Africa before the 
imagination, by 1he knowledge of the needs of the people 
in darkness, by the sense of the degradation of fellow- 
men and women in other lands. The true, abiding, 
growing, conquering motive will not be created until 
there be formed within the Christ spirit. Other motives 
will soon lose their grip. Other motives will be pitched 
on too low a key. This motive, the obligation to Jesus 
Christ, the allegiance to Jesus Christ, the fellowship with 
Jesus Christ, this motive will be an all-controlling and 
all-compelling motive. It will subordinate all other 
motives to itself, it will be unfailing and unfading ; it 
can never be paralyzed. It was just at this point that 
Paul the man and Paul the missionary w T as made. He 
said, uncovering the inmost part of his life : " It is the 
love of Christ that impels and compels me, that puts me 
under bonds." Love changes capacity into usefulness, 
opportunity into achievement, duty into privilege. There 
will never be the rising of the church to the high plane 
of service and conquest until there be the Christ spirit 
within. The Christ spirit will form naturally the 
Christ life. There will come the Christ plan of life, the 
Christ sense of obligation, the Christ joy in service. 
Then will come, as a natural fruitage, the Christ conquest 
of the world. 



102 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

3. The Christian is to be like Christ. There was in Christ 
a sense of obligation, of responsibility. He was in him- 
self an organized obligation, responsibility, stewardship, 
service, duty. These words were more real to Jesus than 
they have ever been to the most devoted man. He said : 
" I must be about my Father's business ; " " I must work 
the works of him that sent me " ; "I came to seek and 
to save the lost " ; " It is my food and my drink, to do 
the will of my Father/' When Peter and others would 
hold him within the limits of Capernaum, he said, I 
must preach the gospel t3 other villages, for this came I 
forth. Jesus wore a yoke of service. Jesus was a con- 
suming fire. Jesus found delight in putting his own life 
under the burdens of others. He was a medical dis- 
pensary and a society for helping the poor. He was a 
training school and theological seminary ; a home mis- 
sionary and a social reformer. Jesus w r as a missionary 
to men outside the Hebrew faith. The very essence 
of the life of Jesus was his love for souls. With 
more than the earnestness of a Salvation Army man did 
Jesus delight to win a soul into a life of fellowship w T ith 
God. Jesus was not a performer of miracles, or a 
teacher of high moral systems, except incidentally. The 
one sole thing that made Jesus Christ, without which he 
could not have been, was his absorbing love for the glory 
of God. The love for God made him in love for the 
souls of men. Apart from the desire to help men, Jesus 
had no aim. Apart from the joy of saving men, Jesus 
had no joy. When he led one unclean woman up into 
God's light, it made a meal for his soul. Jesus Christ in 
the three years of his ministry, meant souls. This, how- 
ever, is only a fragment of the truth. Jesus Christ, in 



CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. 103 

his present ministry, means souls. Jesus Christ, to-day, 
has only one thought in his heart for this round world, 
this is the welfare of men. The providence of God in 
the world, the guiding hand of God, the upholding power, 
the rulership over all things, all these reveal God's 
thought to bless and save men. Jesus Christ is to-day 
concerned for men, their salvation, their completion in the 
image of God, their upbuilding in righteousness, their 
alliance with God in all holy ways. If we could get 
from the Lord Jesus to-day an answer to this question, 
"What are you living for? what is the motive of your 
life? what is your deepest concern?" the answer would 
be, to change all men into the sons of God, to make God's 
kingdom come. 

4. The Christian must not only represent Christ, he must 
re-live Christ. The Christian life is only another name 
for the Christ life. A Christian is a man that Jesus 
Christ lives in ; a man that Jesus Christ thinks in ; a 
man that Jesus Christ lives through and acts through. 
And, therefore, the Christian is to live over again in a 
smaller mold, but in like way the very life that Christ 
lived. He must have Christ's uplook, to live for God 
and his will ; he must have Christ's inlook, the sense of 
a mastering passion for God and for men ; he must have 
Christ's outlook, the life of yokeship and service. Xot 
in a pantheistic or mystic way, but as a real and control- 
ling power the Christian men, living in the midst of a 
flesh and blood life, ought to be able to say, " It is no more 
I that live, but Christ that liveth in me." The funda- 
mental plans and policies of the Christian life are founded 
upon and molded by Jesus Christ. It was a Roman, a 
heathen man, who said, " There is nothing which con- 



104 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

cerns man that does not concern me." It was a noble 
saying ; it might fittingly have come from the lips of 
Jesus. The Christian not only may say, but must say, 
" There is nothing which concerns Christ that does not 
concern me." It is not an incidental thing, therefore, that 
a Christian is a doer of good, a helper of God to get hold 
of men , to get hold of the world. It is the very essence of the 
Christian life, it is that essential thing without which the 
Christian life cannot be. The Christian is not converted so 
much into peace, and joy, and happiness, and gladness, and 
rest, as into service, into a life of fellowship with Jesus 
Christ, into partnership to make God's kingdom come. 
It is not optional with a Christian whether he shall be 
concerned about saving men, it is not a question that he 
may vote up or vote down at will, he must be concerned 
about them, for Christ is concerned about them. In 
Romans 8 : 29, Paul teaches that the design of the con- 
verted life is not safety, or peace, or heaven even, but a 
transformation into a holy character, conformed to the 
image of God's Son. It was said by Tyndall that some- 
where in the universe twice two might make five. If 
that were conceivable, it could not be conceivable that any- 
where a man may be an intelligent disciple of the Lord 
Jesus, a kinsman of Jesus, without being moved by his 
impulses. Every Christian must say over again, after 
Christ, "It is my food and drink to do the will of my 
Father"; " I came to seek and save the lost " ; "I must be 
about my Father's business " ; " I must work the works of 
him that sent me." Because the Christ life must be the 
Christian's life, therefore the Christ's work must be the 
Christian's work. The Christian may say it is my work 
because it is his work. Martin Luther said the Chris- 



CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. 105 

tian life is the proper use of the personal pronouns, I, 
me, mine. Assuredly no one gets into the secrets of the 
Christ love until he can say, " Who loved me" Assur- 
edly no one gets up into the altitude of a true Christian 
life until he takes Christ's work upon himself and says, 
" His work is my work." And, therefore, what a Chris- 
tian man gives is not charity, it is not benevolence. He 
is giving part of himself, his money, to his own work, his 
own work because Christ's work. There are needed new 
terms for the giving of money by Christ's people for 
Christ's work, for Christ's sake. 

5. The responsibility must be personal. The pressure 
of obligation is not upon the church, or upon the sister- 
hood of churches, but upon the person for whom alone I 
am, in strictness, responsible, that is myself. There are 
two persons to be concerned in this great work of the 
world's evangelization, Jesus Christ and mvself. This is 
my work, my duty, my responsibility, my obligation, my 
opportunity. If the horizons of others are narrow, then 
Jesus Christ and myself must begin the work as soon as 
we can, as best w r e can of bringing the entire round world 
into subjection to the Saviour. In the Year-Book of 
1893, a^e enrolled three million, three hundred and 
eighty-three thousand, one hundred and sixty baptized 
believers. I am to be concerned with the one unit of the 
millions that represents myself. The great need of our 
churches is the sense of a personal obligation. We need 
this to rest upon each one. The responsibility is not to be 
transferred to another or to a society. No one can be a 
Christ-like Christian by proxy. There must be a responsi- 
bility upon the churches, not in spots, but upon the entire 
individual membership. In the " Christian Inquirer" 



106 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of February 15, 1893, a Baptist church of five hundred 
members is reported as giving one thousand seven hun- 
dred and sixty-seven dollars. Of this amount, nine persons 
gave one thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars; the 
Sunday-school gave one hundred and forty dollars ; leav- 
ing the church at large to give one hundred and seventy- 
seven dollars. If there had been the ploughing in of a 
sense of individual responsibility there would have been a 
larger crop of contributors. It came upon the world a 
startling discovery that the air so silent, presses upon each 
square inch with a fifteen-pound pressure. It would 
come upon the Christian world like the opening of a new 
era if there should be upon each confessing Christian a 
consciousness of what the Christian life really is, the 
pressure of the Christ life upon every part of the Christian 
life for three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. 
6. The cultivation of the sense of obligation. How 
may the sense of responsibility be enlarged ? It will rest 
to a large extent upon the pastors and leaders in 
Christian work. A church is, to a great degree, what 
the pastor himself is. A church belongs to Christ, but it 
is molded and shaped by the pastor. If he is a man 
with a large sense of obligation, that sense of obligation 
will, through training, become contagious. David Brain- 
erd lived a large life amid little and seemingly insignifi- 
cant surroundings. He wrote in his diary: " Last year I 
longed to be prepared for a world of glory, but of late all 
my concern is for the conversion of the heathen, and for that 
end I long to live." The largeness of that life touched 
and moved William Carey. It touched and moved Samuel 
J. Mills and Henry Martyn. In the same way, to-day, 
a life touched by a sense of love, of duty, of imperative 



CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. 107 

obligation will influence others upward into the same kind 
of life. Back of the church is the pastor. Back of the 
pastor is the New Testament. Back of the New Testa- 
ment is Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ and the New 
Testament will reach the church through the pastor. In 
a church multiplication table it would stand in this way : 
One pastor, in his molding power, in his influence, is equal 
to twenty-five, or fifty, or one hundred members, or to the 
entire church combined. There is large need, therefore, 
not of Baxter's reformed pastor, but of Christ's form- 
ing and transforming pastor. 

For the development of the sense of personal responsi- 
bility there must be a crowding upon the membership of 
our churches the essential idea of conversion. Our pre- 
valent molds of doctrine have a vast deal to do with 
religious experience. In days when the pulpit magnified 
the law, every convert passed through a deep emotional ex- 
perience; each convert had a slough of despond to be passed 
through. We need to have this mold of doctrine, that each 
one converted into the new life in Christ may be converted, 
not alone into safety, peace, emotion, but also into service, 
into a personal endeavor to bring in the kingdom of God. 
One inquiry, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do/' is equal 
to a vast deal of singing, " Oh, I am so happy in Jesus," as 
a test of the Christian life. A small sense of the respon- 
sibility is equal to a large amount of emotion. There 
must be in the unwritten covenant of each church this 
large and scriptural teaching, that the confession of faith 
in Christ is inseparable from the union with Christ in ser- 
vice for souls. Every Christian should be converted into 
orthodoxy, into holy living, into fervent praying, into 
consecrated service, into holy giving, into the dedication 



108 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of himself into entire loyalty to the Lord Jesus. The 
Christian life is loyalty to Jesus Christ. We may not 
pride ourselves on our orthodoxy in maintaining the 
scriptural relation of the ordinances, if we are vastly het- 
erodox in looking a plain command of the Saviour in the 
face and then disobeying it. The contribution box is as 
much a test of orthodoxy as the creed. Loyalty to Christ 
means obedience. Loyalty to Christ means the highest 
motive. We may, therefore, lay aside for twenty years 
to come the appeal to engage in the work of spreading the 
gospel from the number of conversions, from the small 
cost in money for saving one soul in India, from the mer- 
cantile value of missions. Loyalty to Christ would lead 
to obedience to Christ if there were only one small island 
in the Pacific, unlighted by the knowledge of Christ. It 
is not the numbers of men unsaved that moves the 
Christian, but the command of Christ. It is not success 
that should stimulate the church, but the simple wish of 
the Lord that should impel and compel. John Eliot 
wrote in his grammar for the Indians, these words : 
" Prayer and pains through faith in Jesus Christ will do 
anything." The life of Eliot seems, at first sight, thrown 
away. The Bible translated into their tongue, no one in 
the world can read it. The Indians have perished from 
the earth. But his life was splendid, is splendid, because 
it was mastered by Christ's passion for souls. It grew 
out of a consuming sense of personal obligation. That 
which made him, will make men like him to-day. We 
are to look on ourselves as put in trust with the gospel. 
Every truth is a trust. Every opportunity is an obli- 
gation. Every responsibility is a privilege. Every Chris- 
tian must regard himself as a trustee of Christ, put in 



CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. 109 

trust with the ministry of the Saviour upon the earth. 
Three things lie side by side in the personal life — oppor- 
tunity, ability, responsibility. Opportunity says, I may. 
Ability says, I can. Responsibility says, I ought. Then 
the Christ spirit says, By God's help, I will. 

7. The expulsive power of a new affection. "What if our 
more than three million members should have in them the 
spirit of an indwelling Christ, should be personally in love 
with that one commanding Christ above, should put on the 
yoke of service, would there not be the thrill of a new 
life ; would there not be an aggressive power in the church ; 
would not the awakened church drive out of the lan- 
guage such deviPs words as dive, saloon, slum ; would not 
China and Japan feel the power that would come from 
this increased sense of responsibility? Is all this 
Utopian, is it but a day-dream ? Here are the men and 
the women, here is the machinery, here is the social 
standing, here are ability and power, here are the open- 
ing opportunities, above is the one Christ with his heart 
never satisfied until he gets hold of the world, there 
stands in the Book the one supreme command to en- 
lighten the world, there is on the heart the blood of 
redemption and forgiveness. There is needed this, that 
we shall live up to the confession we all have made, 
that having been forgiven through the blood of Christ 
we may be moved by the life of Christ. The sentence 
in the hall of the Christian Workers at Boston is always 
true, " Christ alone can save the world n ; but he cannot 
save it alone. He needs the help of every confessing 
Christian, and that begets the sense of responsibility. 
If the baptized believers should get the meaning of that 
w r ord upon their lips and in their hearts, there would be 
10 



110 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

a reformation, a revolution. What tremendously signifi- 
cant words are those in 2 Peter 3 : 12 (Rev. Ver.), 
" Hastening the coming of the day of God." The divine 
movements wait on the human. Every Christian may 
help to usher in the completed kingdom of God, or he 
may hinder. Out of this power to stand in God's way, 
or to be God's right hand of help, comes a fearful respon- 
sibility. One of the most inspiring books of recent 
years is Mackenzie's " History of the Nineteenth Century." 
It shows the amazing advances made in recent years. 
Gladstone says that the race has made more material 
progress in the first fifty years of this century than in all 
the preceding centuries ; in the next twenty-five years 
a greater advance than in the first fifty; in the next 
decade more than in the preceding twenty-five. There 
must be alongside this marvellous growth in the material 
life, a growth also in our conceptions of the Christian 
life. Thirteen pounds meant a vast deal for the men of 
Carey's time. Enlarging responsibility means for us, in 
our day, contributions expressed in terms of a million 
dollars and beyond. 

8. The power of a personal Christ. If men can be 
gotten under the control of the personal Christ, there will 
be of necessity an alliance with Christ in all things. 
Emerson said : " A personal ascendency, that is the only 
fact much worth considering." If we can get ourselves 
and others under the personal ascendency of the Lord 
Jesus, there will be the contribution of ourselves. From 
this will come prayer, service, money, intelligent interest 
in God's work. Duty will mean doing ; opportunity 
will mean obligation ; ability will mean bestowal ; needs 
will mean gifts. The great missionary field of the 



CULTIVATION OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. Ill 

world to-day is the church, that it may get to know the 
Christ himself in an intimate way, for fellowship, for 
service, for likeness in character. Christ for us means 
salvation. Christ in us means holiness. Christ with us 
means fellowship for work. Myself in Christ means 
safety. Myself for Christ means service. Myself with 
Christ means heaven. We need to-day to be more con- 
cerned about the yoke than the crown. We need to be 
more concerned about getting heaven on the earth than 
upon getting into heaven ourselves. The great mission 
of the Christian life is the glory of God in the salvation 
of the world. The great motive of the Christian life is 
Jesus Christ in the heart. The great test of the Chris- 
tian life is not enjoyment, but responsibility and service. 
The millennium will come when the individual Christian 
by the million learns to say : " I am debtor to every man 
and cause that needs my help." Christ and the church 
working together are invincible. God regenerates the 
soul and presents it to the church. The church must 
generate intelligence and training for fruitful service. 
Jesus Christ makes us free from sin that we may be 
bondmen of the Saviour and debtors to others. 



IX. 

" THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH." 

KEV. LEMUEL C. BARNES, 
Pastor Fourth Avenue Baptist Church, Pittsburgh, Pa, 

Two names have been given to the age in which we 
live. Some have called it the "Age of Missions." 
Others, from a different point of view, have called it the 
" Age of Electricity." May we not give to the coming 
era a name which shall include the main points in both 
these and also many other important characteristics? 
May we not call it the " Age of Fellowship" ? That is 
the high significance in electricity. Pittsburgh and 
London by its agency can hold communication in a few 
minutes of time. America and India can talk with one 
another in an hour. Chicago and Boston are literally 
within speaking distance. By Gray's recently invented 
telautograph a man in Portland, Oregon, may sign his 
name to a document, and as he draws the marks the same 
signature in ink may be recorded in Portland, Maine. 

Electricity not only promotes fellowship in the com- 
munication of thought and voice and handwriting, but 
also in bringing men close together in bodily fellowship. 
While the suburbs of our cities are widely spreading out, 
they are by electric transit drawing nearer than ever to 
the centers. Edison tells us that there is no reason why, 
before long, men should not be fired over the continents 
at the rate of one hundred and fifty miles an hour. The 
high significance in electricity is fellowship. 
112 



THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH. 113 

Now, if we bad time, we might see that in many other 
important departments of life, the characteristic word for 
the age to come is fellowship. What characterizes the 
business world?* Vast combinations of capitalists. Fel- 
lowship ! Vast combinations of workingmen. Fellow- 
ship ! The key- word of the political economy of the 
past was competition. The keynote of the economy of 
the future is fellowship. So in education. You remember 
that Pete Jones was fond of declaring to the Hoosier 
schoolmaster that there was " no larnin* without lickin\ 
Lickin' and larnin'. Lickin' and larnin' goes together." 
But those who have read the series of articles in the 
" Forum " concerning the public schools of our great cities 
to-day, have seen that the city of Indianapolis leads them 
all in the high quality of its educational methods, being 
so much in advance of most of them that there are only 
three other cities on the continent — one of those three 
being in the same Hoosier State — which rank in the class 
with Indianapolis. What is the characteristic of the ideal 
educational system according to the Ci Forum " critic ? He 
tells us in other words to the effect that formerly the 
ideal was " lickin' and lamin'," but now wise teachers 
enter into relations of personal friendship with their 
pupils and the pupils come to regard their teachers as 
loving helpers. In one word, the new education is 
characterized by fellowship. 

What is our Christianity? The keystone of it is 
fellowship, — the Son of God in perfect fellowship with 
men, the Son of man in perfect fellowship with God. 
There are two sides of the arch of which this is the key- 
stone. Their substance too, is fellowship. God shares 
all his good with men. That half of the structure of 



114 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

Christianity we have been trying always to learn and 
have not sufficiently learned yet. But the other half we 
are only beginning to bring to its proper place, namely, 
that the children of God are to share ail" the goods they 
have with their fellow-men, I will not raise the question 
how far the lowest kind of goods is included. The first 
disciples, under the fusion of pentecostal fire, believed 
that all the lowest goods were included. They may 
possibly have been mistaken. But whatever we say of 
the positive and the comparative, it is certain that all the 
superlative goods which men possess are to be shared 
with their fellow-men. The great New Testament word 
" fellowship " or " communion " always means sharing. 

The final teaching of Jesus was simply this. His 
Great Commission was that his disciples should not hold 
the goods they had from God, but share with their 
fellows, even unto the ends of the earth. 

Is it possible to do this ? Can we reach out so widely ? 
Can we see so far ? Can our hands reach out what God 
has given us to the ends of the earth ? It mav be that 
the brethren in Chicago, with their Ferris wheel and 
their other great advantages for wide outlook, are able to 
see to the ends of the earth ; but how can we, — how can 
our little local church, yours and mine, not located per- 
chance in one of the great cities, but down out of sight in 
some Sugar Hollow, away from all centers of life, away 
from all mountains of observation and opportunity, — 
how can we actively share with all men to the ends of the 
earth in the good which God has given us ? 

Instead of trying to answer this in a speculative way, 
let us look at it in a concrete case. Instead of theorizing 
about it, let us simply try to see a church in a place as 



THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH. 115 

obscure and out of the way as our Sugar Hollow is, a 
single small church which has actually done this thing 
for more than a hundred and fifty years. If anybody 
anywhere has been able, under such circumstances as ours, 
to do this, we can do it in our obscure locality, in our 
small church. You have already guessed, perhaps, that 
the church which I have in mind is the church in Herrn- 
hut. Let us see how far the church in little Herrnhut 
has reached. We shall have to fly swiftly to compass the 
horizon of that church. 

We are in Greenland. At a glance we discover that 
the Esquimaux are among the lowest and most loathsome, 
the most stolid and unresponsive of mankind. After six 
years of patient teaching and appeal they do not show the 
melting of a single line in their hardened faces. We are 
gathered with them in a room where one of the Herrn- 
hutters is transcribing the gospel story of the crucifixion. 
He reads it aloud. While he reads, one of the most 
hardened of these frozen faces begins to melt. The lines 
of stolidity are broken. Soon the whole room is filled 
with the manifest and throbbing spirit of Jesus Christ, 
and many of the Esquimaux are won to his love and his 
service. 

Fly six hundred miles across the straits to Labrador, 
and a similar process is going on. Take the wings of the 
north wind and fly on for thousands of miles down the 
American continent until we come to our own territory. 
See these Herrnhutters year after year and generation 
after generation seeking to win the American Indian to 
Christ. 

Fly on to the West Indies. There come from Herrn- 
hut two men, ready to be sold into slavery, that they may 



116 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

bring to the Negroes the fellowship of Christ. One, left 
alone, is tending a watch-fire on a great plantation that 
he may earn a pittance of bread by keeping guard over 
the property of the planters, who hate him, and he 
wonders if the Herrnhutters away in Saxony have for- 
gotten him. Toward the middle of the night he sees 
two men stalking out of the darkness toward him and 
wonders with what intent they are coming. As they 
come nearer, and the light of the watch-fire gleams over 
their faces, he sees that they are his brethren who have 
come over land and sea to his help. 

We cannot stop to recount the long trials and the ulti- 
mate triumphs of the gospel as brought to the West 
Indies by this people. We must fly on over into Central 
America, to the Mosquito coast — a suggestive name. 
Along the lagoons of the Mosquito coast these Herrn- 
hutters have been winning to Christ hundreds of men 
and women. Fly again, hundreds of miles farther, to 
the north shoulder of South America. Go into the 
woods where the low and dark and degraded natives of 
thai quarter of the globe are to be found, and the Herrn- 
hutters are there winning them to Christ. Stretch the 
wing for a flight of thousands of miles across the Atlantic 
to South Africa, and in two or three places in the dark 
continent we find the men and women of Herrnhut win- 
ning to Christ men and women of Africa. Would that 
we could stop to listen to the thrilling stories which clus- 
ter about the African mission of the Moravians ; but we 
must fly across another ocean to Australia, and here we 
come to that quarter of the globe where our evolutionist 
teachers tell us we must look, if anywhere ou earth, for 
the missing link. Here are the lowest, most animal and 



THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH. 117 

degraded of all mankind ; and here in the midst of them 
are the Herrnhutters, making known Jesus Christ, and 
lifting men up toward him. 

We cannot stop here ; but in our great sweep around 
the globe along with these Herrnh utters, we must hasten 
another ten thousand miles to Alaska. The ship comes 
only once in the year ; the rest of the time they are shut 
away from all communication with the outside world. 
There are two explorers who never have heard of these 
Herrnhutters, but who are making an expedition through 
Alaska, and their guides keep speaking to them about 
the Kilbuckamucks, and they tell them what wonderful 
ways the Kilbuckamucks have ; and these explorers — 
scientific men — begin to think that they are on the trail 
of a new species of the genus homo. They begin to get 
eager to find what the Kilbuckamucks can possibly be. 
They must be a strange and marvelous people according 
to all accounts. By-and-by they draw near, and they are 
told that just yonder over the hill they shall come upon 
the Kilbuckamucks. When they come upon them, what 
are they ? They are the Moravian missionaries, Mr. and 
Mrs. Kilbuck, with their Indian converts. They are, in- 
deed, a new species in that part of the world — born of 
Heaven. The kingdom of heaven is coming in Alaska ; 
it is coming from Herrnhut. 

It is now time for us to turn toward Herrnhut itself. 
But on the way we have to climb over the roof of the world, 
as it has been called, the Himalaya Mountains, reaching 
farthest into the heavens of any section of the globe. We 
go over one range after another, each higher than the pre- 
ceding, until we come to one so high that it is covered with 
snow except three months of the year. Only for that time 



118 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

is it possible to cross into the valley beyond. We take our 
chance and cross. There we find the Herrnhutters. The 
rest of the evangelical world has been praying that Thibet 
might be opened to the gospel ; has been praying and 
praying ; but while we prayed, the Moravians have been 
actually standing at the doors of Thibet for thirty years 
and knocking, knocking, knocking. From this lofty 
perch we must take wing again for Herrnhut. But on 
the way we cannot fail to halt at Jerusalem. 

The Holy City has become a storehouse of religious 
superstitions. We are more interested in religious reali- 
ties. As we pass out of the city on our way to Bethle- 
hem, and we see beside the highway a great building, one 
of the finest in Palestine, we say, " This must be the 
palace of the pasha of Jerusalem ; no other could have 
such a home/' We inquire and find that the Herrnhutters 
have come here and built this great palace. For whom ? 
For lepers : those loathsome men and women whom you 
saw, as you plunged into the valley of the Kedron on 
your way to the Mount of Olives ; those people who come 
creeping out into the center of the road almost under your 
horse's hoofs, and whom you dare not try to describe, or 
even picture again to yourself, because of their loath- 
someness. At Jerusalem the living Christ is to be sought 
in the Moravian Home for lepers and not in the church 
of the Holy Sepulchre. 

Now let us come to Herrnhut itself, that we may see 
what kind of place the center of this world-wide activity 
is. It must be some great focus of modern civilization, 
from which lines of electricity and rail, lines of financial 
and political influence, are radiating to every quarter of 
the globe, or else there could not be such a wide sweep of 



THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH. 119 

activity on the part of these people. We are in Dresden, 
where thousands of Americans spend months at a time, but 
not one in a thousand of whom ever makes the little journey 
which you and I are now to make. We are reluctant to go, 
because here in Dresden, we are in the brightest blaze of 
human art. Elsewhere we have been wearied with miles 
and miles of painted canvas, having but now and then a 
gleam of life. The artists who have been painting pietas 
and other dead Christs for all the centuries, have more 
than wasted their time; that canvas might better have 
been sew T n into flour sacks for the hungry masses in 
Europe, that paint might better have been used on the 
dismal homes of the peasantry. Here we are at last in 
the Dresden gallery, and we have hastened through its 
long halls and corridors to that far corner room which 
contains by itself alone the Sistine Madonna. But we are 
out of patience, we do not believe in it, it is only a a fad/' 
we say ; people must have some picture w T hich they call 
the greatest in the world and they have taken a notion to 
call this the greatest. Look at that green curtain the 
artist painted there ! Is it not as we thought, simply the 
most famous waste of canvas and paint? We glance at 
it once in a while, then we glance at it twice in a while ; 
then our eyes begin to hold themselves to it, and w T e forget 
the green hangings which the artist painted, Ave forget the 
clouds, the robes, and even the cherubs, and our eyes cen- 
ter on the eyes of the mother of our Lord, and we find 
ourselves entranced. The master has almost put soul and 
spirit into the canvas, and we can hardly leave it. We re- 
turn to it again and again. 

From the Dresden gallery and its Sistine Madonna we 
start for Herrnhut. We go forty miles east on the 



120 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

railroad and then change cars. " What train shall 1 take? 
This one? " " No, yonder is the train for Herrnhut." 
The train ! I see no train. That thing ? There is a 
little time before it starts, so you inspect it. It is a unique 
structure. Here is a tiny first-class compartment, empty. 
Next is a second-class compartment. But we are in 
Germany, there must be a third-class for actual use. 
Yes, our conveyance is a double-decker, the whole second 
story is third-class. And where is the baggage car? 
That is in another part of the same structure, first story. 
Well, then, where is the locomotive ? A little farther 
along in the same concern is the locomotive. I thought 
I was going to the center of the world's widest enterprise, 
but I must be going to " the jurnping-off place." It is so 
unimportant a corner of the earth that the whole estab- 
lishment for conveying people back and forth is this one 
vehicle, which is three classes, and baggage, and express, 
and mail, and locomotive altogether. We take it and go 
nine miles to the end of the track. It is a very hot day, 
and the friend with us cannot walk three-quarters of a 
mile to the village ; a carriage must be had, but there is 
no carriage here. u We must have a carriage." So off 
they go to tackle up a rusty concern which after a long 
time comes for us. If anybody goes to Herrnhut he is 
expected to walk. They do not ride in Herrnhut. At 
last we reach the little hotel owned by the community. 
I wish we had time to look at its sanded floor and all its 
antique, grandmotherly simplicity and delight. In the 
early morning, we stroll along a quiet street of cottages 
and come to a building of archives, Moravian archives, 
and the kindly old custodian takes us into a room lined 
with simple cases having unpainted deal doors. He opens 



THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH. 121 

them, and we see the archives of one hundred and sixty 
years of Moravian history. The mere labels on the cases, 
with their mighty sweep of contents, make one's blood 
jump and his nerves actually tingle. "Greenland, Lab- 
rador, United States, West Indies, Surinam, South Africa, 
Australia, Thibet, Alaska, Jerusalem ! " Here we are in 
the midst of the records of the gigantic fellowship of this 
tiny village of Herrnhut with the ends of the earth. We 
go over next to Zinzendorf *s house, in an upper room of 
which the Board w r hich controls this world-wide work has 
held its sessions for one hundred years. That Board is in 
session, as it is nearly every week-day in the year, but 
behind two separated and carefully locked doors, so 
jealously do they guard their w T ork. Meantime, till you 
can get an opportunity for a long, never-to-be-forgotten 
conversation with one of the kindly managers of the 
stupendous Moravian enterprise, you stroll about the vil- 
lage. What kind of a place is it, this place which has such 
a scope of energy that it reaches out and takes hold of the 
Himalaya mountains and the Arctic circle and the tropic 
regions and shakes the whole earth. Here is one of the 
inhabitants coming out of her thatched-roof cottage, a 
poor old woman, w T ith a common sun-bonnet thrown back 
from a wrinkled face, with no shoes on her feet, but only 
sandals. She seems a fair specimen of the earthly estate 
of the whole community. But as you look into her face 
you see that there is something more than a peasant here, 
that here is one, who, like the sandalled One of Nazareth, 
has shining in the lines of the face the spirit of Almighty 
God, sharing with all the needy world. You remem- 
ber that perhaps this woman was once a missionary in 
Africa or in Thibet, or that perchance at this moment she 
11 



122 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

has a son or a daughter in some other quarter of the globe, 
and you say to yourself, I am glad I left even the Sistine 
Madonna to come here, because here I see, not painted 
canvas, but living flesh and blood, which throbs with the 
spirit of Jesus of Nazareth. You begin to see how it is 
that little Herrnhut touches the ends of the earth in its 
mighty energy. It is not by wealth, not by great learn- 
ing, not by vast facilities, but by personal devotion. 
There is no Eiffel tower here, or Ferris wheel, from which 
to get a wide outlook, and yet the horizon of Herrnhut 
is as wide as a great circle of the globe. 

How have they done it? Listen to two instances only. 
At the very beginning, a carpenter and a potter are dig- 
ging in the ground. A Negro has come from the West 
Indies and told of the degradation of his fellow-blacks 
there. It is in the heart of each of these men, " I wish 
I could go." They have no money ; there is no mission- 
ary society. They dare not speak to each other of such a 
wild project at first, but by-and-by one hints at it and 
then the other says, " That was in my heart too." These 
two young men drop their tools for a minute and kneel 
down on the ground, and say, " O God, let us go to the 
West Indies to preach the gospel. We are ready to go 
into slavery, if need be." They soon presented a written 
appeal to the elders of the church to let them go. The 
elders and the church read the appeal and shook their 
wise heads, saying : " These young men are too rash. We 
must take time to think of it." And they took months 
to think of it, but by-and-by they said, " You may go." 
The two young men start with a trifle over three dollars 
each in their pockets. How? On foot. Their baggage? 



THE SPHERE OF A LOCAL CHURCH. 123 

Packs on their backs. Their first destination ? Copen- 
hagen, six hundred miles away. Every person with 
whom they talk in all the weary six hundred miles, 
except one devout woman, discourages them and says, 
u You are foolish, go back home." And when they 
reach Copenhagen, people say the same. At last they 
secure passage to the West Indies. How do 1 hey go? 
In a first-class cabin? In a second-class? No, they go 
in the hold, so cramped for space that they cannot even 
sit, to say nothing of standing erect, the whole, long, 
wearisome voyage. These young men are able to reach 
in holy fellowship the ends of the earth, not with money, 
not with learning, not with the facilities of advanced 
civilization, but simply with the spirit of Jesus Christ 
put in practice. 

Recently, the man and his wife in Jerusalem in charge 
of the home for lepers, after seventeen years of toil, are 
worn out. It is a loathsome and nearly hopeless work. 
Say nothing of the physical stench which pertains to 
lepers, none of whom can ever be cured, think of the 
fact that not one of them after six years of teaching was 
able to learn even the alphabet, so degraded and 
benumbed were their mental faculties. The appeal is 
made for somebody to go into this living tomb. Three 
are called for. Immediately twelve Moravian young 
women say : " Here am I ; send me." 

It is not standing on some vantage of earthly power 
that gives a local church a wide sphere of fellowship, it 
is the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth in each one of its 
members and in ail of them together. Oh, that we might 
be sealed with the Moravian seal ! Its device is a lamb 
holding a cross, significantly the resurrection cross, and 



124 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

on that cross is a banner of victory, and the motto 
inscribed is this : " Our Lamb has conquered. Him let 
us follow." Our Lamb has conquered. Him let us 
follow. 



SEPARATED FOR MISSION WORK. 

(Acts 13 : 1-3.) 

AUGUSTUS H. STRONG D. P., 

President Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester, N. Y. 

This passage is one of the most important in the New 
Testament. It is the turning point of the Acts of the 
Apostles. It describes a great crisis in the history of the 
church, the first formal organized movement for the uni- 
versal diffusion of the gospel. Hitherto Jerusalem had 
been the centre, and Christ had been preached almost ex- 
clusively to Jews. Now Antioch became the centre, and 
Christianity started out to convert the whole Gentile 
world. Fourteen years before, the ship of salvation had 
been launched far from the sea ; all these years it had 
been making its way down the river to the river's 
mouth ; now it has reached the ocean and, leaving the 
country of its birth, it is to begin a voyage which will 
not end till it has touched upon every coast, and has car- 
ried the good news of the kingdom to every nation under 
heaven. If I had discovered a new variety of wheat, 
and had but a half-dozen grains of it at my disposal, I 
would not introduce it by planting one grain in Japan, 
another on the Congo, and so on, until I had but one left 
to plant at home. No ; in that way they would probably 
all be lost. I would, therefore, plant all six at home in 
a teacup ; when they had germinated, I would transfer 
them to a garden bed ; the fruit of these I would sow in 
a field ; only when .1 had gotten a large crop from sue- 

125 



128 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDEE3SES. 

cessive sowings would I send my seed abroad. So God's 
plan was first to secure good seed. In that little land of 
Palestine a single corn of wheat fell into the ground and 
died. Christ's death was followed by resurrection and 
ascension. Pentecost was the feast of firstfruits. Jews 
were gathered in — those natural proselyters and propa- 
gandists. At last, after fourteen years of careful tend- 
ing, the seed corn has borne much fruit. But it has been 
cherished for a time, amid these narrow surroundings, 
only that it may grow strong enough to multiply itself 
without end. And now at Antioch a great missionary 
impulse seizes the assembled church, and for the first 
time it puts the seed into the hands of sowers, and sends 
them out to scatter it through the heathen world. 

We believe that the Acts of the Apostles gives us 
illustrations of the principles upon which God proceeds, 
and upon which men should proceed, in extending the 
kingdom of Christ. Since New Testament precedent is 
the common law of the church, let us examine this critical 
passage, and see what its lessons are for us. 

The first lesson seems to be this : The Holy Spirit is 
the spirit of foreign missions, and will lead every fully 
developed church to pray for foreign missions. I regard 
this passage in the Acts as a description of the second 
great prayer meeting of the Christian church. The first one 
had taken place fourteen years before at Jerusalem, just 
after the ascension of our Lord. It was a meeting of 
ten days. In answer to united and continued prayer, the 
Holy Spirit moved the apostles to speak with other 
tongues, and the gospel was preached to Jews. But one 
by one, indications were given of a wider purpose of God. 
The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, of Cornelius, 



SEPARATED FOR MISSION WORK. 127 

of a few Gentiles at Antioch, stirred up this particular 
church to inquire what God's purpose was with reference 
to the heathen. The church was drawn to prayer. The 
fasting was an indication of a mind intent upon knowing 
God's will. The prophets and teachers only led the 
church in supplication, and expressed its longing that the 
plan of God might be more fully disclosed. The second 
great prayer meeting, like the first one which preceded 
Pentecost, seems to have been a meeting of days. And 
it was then that the Holy Spirit spake once more through 
the church's ministers, not now in other tongues, but in 
the tongues wherein they were born, snying to the assem- 
bled church : " Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the 
work whereunto I have called them." The first great 
prayer meeting resulted in the preaching of the gospel to 
the Jews ; the second great prayer meeting results in the 
preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles. Now first the 
Holy Spirit interprets to the church the meaning of our 
Lord's parting command to go into all the world and preach 
the gospel to the whole creation. Now first the church 
breaks away from her contracted past, and from her 
Jewish exclusiveness, and asserts her right to universal 
dominion. The oak has been growing in a flower-pot 
long enough,- — it must stretch out now so that the birds 
of Europe as well as of Asia may lodge in its branches. 
Brethren, has not the Holy Spirit moved us to meet here 
for prayer ? If in our present meeting we seek the Holy 
Spirit's direction as earnestly as those early Christians did, 
may not some new and larger way of Christian service be 
opened to us also ? 

The second lesson is, that the Holy Spirit leads every 
folly developed church to organized and associated effort 



128 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

in foreign missions. Up to the time of the great meeting 
in Antioch, Christian work bad apparently been spon- 
taneous and individual. This passage marks the begin- 
ning of concerted measures, of studied plans, of regular 
efforts for the conquest of the world. From this time we 
have something like co-operation, machinery, societies in 
the church. As it was not the prophets and teachers only 
who prayed, so it was not the prophets and teachers only, 
but the church, that was bidden to separate Saul and 
Barnabas for the work. These apostles did not go out at 
their own charges — we may believe that as they gave 
their lives, the brethren gave their money. They were 
the church's representatives in the heathen world — there- 
fore, when they came back they reported what they had 
done to the church that had sent them out. While they 
were absent they were upheld and sustained by the 
prayers of the brethren whom they had left behind ; those 
hands that were laid upon their heads when they set out 
were symbolic of the prayer that was continually to cover 
and protect them during their absence. The Holy Spirit 
that commanded the church to send them brought all the 
members of the church more closely together in that act 
than they had ever been before. Well might the church 
at Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians, 
be the first church to undertake regular and united work 
for the heathen! Brethren, if we" ourselves were more 
worthy to be called Christians, would not the Holy 
Spirit lead us to organize some great new movement upon 
the kingdom of darkness? . When so large a number of 
our prophets and teachers are gathered as are here to-day, 
and when so strong a feeling of Christian union pervades 
our hearts, are we not warranted in believing that the 



SEPARATED FOR MISSION WORK. 129 

Holy Spirit intends for us some closer and more effective 
association in the work of foreign missions? 

The third lesson is this : The Holy Spirit leads the 
truly spiritual church to give its best teachers and its 
best men to the work of foreign missions. Not all of 
them, but two-fifths of them, and they the best. Symeon 
and Lucius a$d Manaen, the foster brother of Herod the 
Tetrarch, were, doubtless, men of mark ; but Paul and 
Barnabas were evidently their superiors, both in zeal and 
in experience. Were not such men as Paul and Barnabas 
needed at Autioch ? Did not the many perils of the in- 
fant church, did not its heterogeneous membership, did 
not its frequent subjects of controversy, demand the 
guidance and instruction of these wise apostles ? Well, 
it might seem so al first sight. And yet the Holy 
Spirit led that missionary church to see that it was safe 
only as it was obedient ; that to scatter was the only 
way to increase ; that in giving up its best teachers 
to save others it best insured the presence with it 
of Christ himself, the Great Teacher, and the Teacher 
of all teachers. But I make no manner of doubt 
that it cost something to that church at Antioch to give 
up its best to God. I can imagine the tears and the 
benedictions that marked the parting. I can picture to 
myself Paul, now thirty-seven years of age and in his 
prime vigor ; Barnabas, the " son of consolation," with 
an aspect so reverend and benign that the simple country 
people could take him for Jupiter come down to earth. 
This Paul and this Barnabas had been the chosen min- 
isters of the church's bounty to the poor at Jerusalem. 
Each had his great gift ; the one of argument, the other 
of exhortation. They stood high in the favor and the 



130 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

confidence of the church. Both were most acceptable 
to the Jews, and yet both are sent to the Gentiles ! Breth- 
ren, if we felt the needs of the perishing world as that 
church at Antioch felt them, should not we also bid our 
best preachers and teachers leave us to carry the gospel 
into the heart of heathen Africa and Asia ? 

There is a fourth and last lesson : In a truly spiritual 
church the Holy Spirit will move many of his best min- 
isters to go on foreign missions. In his epistle to the 
Galatians, Paul tells us that God had separated him from 
his very birth to preach Christ among the heathen. 
From eternity, indeed, he had been chosen; but only 
nine years before this had he been called. Then, on 
the way to Damascus, God's purpose was first revealed 
to him. For him, a Jew, to be sent as an apostle to the 
Gentiles was a thing so strange that it needed long medi- 
tation and long preparation before he could understand 
it. And so for nine long years he waited for the special 
sign that his work was to begin. Now, through the 
voices of his brethren, the call of the church is added to 
the call of God ; the Holy Spirit gives the sign, and he 
is formally separated, set apart, consecrated, to special 
work for the heathen. It was like Christ's call to the 
elder apostles, Peter and John. There was a first pre- 
liminary call on the banks of the Jordan ; then after- 
ward, in Galilee, when they had pondered its meaning 
and prepared their hearts for the sacrifice, they received 
the summons, and in a moment left their fishers' nets for- 
ever to follow Christ. During those nine years since 
Paul's conversion, what longings must have filled his 
heart ! With what sacred joy, yet with what deep sense 
of responsibility, must he have recognized in these voices 



SEPARATED FOR MISSION WORK. 131 

of his brethren the Holy Spirit's witness that his prelim- 
inary training was complete, and that the great work of 
his life was to begin ! My brethren, are there not a 
multitude of Christ's ministers among us who feel greatly 
drawn to the work of foreign missions, who at some past 
time thought themselves called to undertake the work, 
who have been long waiting for the way to open and for 
the sign to be given that their time has come to go far 
hence to the Gentiles? Why should we not expect the 
Holy Spirit to say to us, as we consult with regard to the 
needs of the great foreign field, " Separate me such and 
such of your best and ablest ministers for the work to 
which I have called them " ? 1 believe there are many 
who would welcome with all their hearts such a call of 
the Holy Spirit through the voice of their brethren, and 
who would thenceforth count themselves as separated and 
set apart to foreign mission work. 

I have intimated that this action of the church at 
Antioch only ratified and made definite God's call to Paul 
at his conversion. On the way to Damascus he came face 
to face with the risen Christ. That blinding glory re- 
vealed to him the fact that Christ was the infinitely Holy 
One ; showed him by contrast his desperate sinfulness ; 
proved that his o *vn works were vain, and that salvation 
must be wholly by grace ; made known to him the perfect 
sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice and the universal validity 
of his cleansing blood. That one view of Christ showed 
Paul that Christ's work was for him and for all, for 
Gentile as well as Jew, and so there was begotten in him 
the absorbing desire to publish the news of his great 
salvation to the whole world for which he died. Dear 
friends, we have never seen the same outward splendor 



132 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

of the Saviour's majesty which smote the apostle to the 
earth. But we have had Christ revealed in us, just as 
truly as he was revealed in Paul. His infinite holiness, 
our unspeakable sin, his perfect sacrifice, the sufficiency 
of his blood to cleanse a whole world of sinners, these are 
arguments lo us as well as to Paul to carry the gospel to 
every creature under heaven. The Holy Spirit is the 
spirit of prayer for missions ; he leads the praying church 
to organize for work abroad ; he bids us give our best 
men to the foreign field ; he would separate many of us 
for personal service there. It is well for us that Paul and 
Barnabas, and the whole church at Antioch, obeyed the 
call of the Holy Spirit that was given that day. That 
we are Christians now at all is due to that fact. We are 
not Jews but Gentiles, and we can trace back our lineage 
as Christians to that decision which sent out Paul and 
Barnabas to the heathen. Aye, our w r hole modern Chris- 
tendom is the fruit of the seed that began to be scattered 
abroad that day. Brethren, let us be obedient to the voice 
of God as that church at Antioch was ! Then, in some dis- 
tant time and in some distant quarter of the world, may 
souls redeemed to God trace back their spiritual lineage 
to us, and declare that from this conference and from this 
hour, proceeded a new and mighty movement for the 
bringing of the world to Christ ! 



XL 

ENDUED WITH POWER. 

(Acts 1 : 1-8.) 

REV. C. J. BALDWIN, D. D., 

Pastor First Baptist Church, Granville, Ohio. 

If the books of the New Testament were arranged in 
the order in which they were written, the series would 
stand as follows : Thessalonians, Corinthians, Colossians, 
Mark, Luke, Galatians, Romans, Philippians, Jude, 
Titus, Timothy, Acts of the Apostles, Matthew, Peter, 
John, Revelation. 

Such would be the probable programme of the contents 
of the New Testament, as they would appear on a chro- 
nological plan. But how inferior to the present arrange- 
ment in respect to the harmony of parts and symmetry 
of the whole. Our Bible in such a form would be a mere 
collection of heterogeneous elements, without logical order 
or vital organization. 

But the Lloly Spirit presided over the arrangement 
as well as the preparation of the inspired books; 
and as a result the formers of the sacred canon were 
guided to the present perfect system. By it we are pro- 
vided with a complete scheme of Christian evolution. 
The New Testament presents a progressive view of Christ 
in the various phases of his character and work. First, 
the Gospels show us Christ in the flesh ; next the book 
of Acts reveals Christ in the church ; then the Epistles 
make known Christ in the truth ; and finally Revelation 
describes Christ in the consummation of his kingdom. 
12 133 



134 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

Thus the twenty-seven distinct treatises which compose 
the New Testament, written as they were by different 
persons at various times and for a variety of purposes, — 
and not one of those authors knew that he was produc- 
ing material for the formation of a Bible for the future, — 
are found to make, when properly put together, a mosaic 
picture of the origin, operations, and end of the grace of 
God as given through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

We are now to consider one of these factors at its 
opening page. 

The book of Acts occupies a central and commanding 
position in the scheme of revelation. It furnishes the 
transition point between the fountain head of the king- 
dom of God on earth, and the radiating branches of the 
stream. To appreciate the value of this book we need 
only try to imagine the consequences of its absence. 
Suppose that the reader must step at once from the Gos- 
pels to the Epistles, with no knowledge of what took 
place in the interval between them, what would he make 
of such an inscription as this : " Paul, an apostle of 
Jesus Christ, to the saints that are in Rome" — or in 
Corinth, Ephesus, Galatia ? " Paul ! " the reader would 
exclaim. "Who is he? We have not heard of him in 
the society of Jesus, nor do the evangelists mention him 
in any connection. How came he to be in charge of the 
gospel? And as for the saints that are in Rome, 
Corinth, or Ephesus, we have read no record of the pass- 
ing of the truth from the Jews to the Gentiles." 

Such questions as these would arrest and bewilder the 
reader at every step while reading the Epistles. These 
letters would appear dark with geographical, political, 
and personal difficulties, which hostile critics would be 



ENDUED WITH POWER. 135 

prompt to point out, and devout believers might be 
troubled by. 

But as it is, the book of Acts supplies the missing 
link, with its wonderful story of the endowment of the 
disciples with the Holy Spirit, their organization into a 
system of aggressive work, its development into a mis- 
sionary enterprise, and the far-reaching, all-pervading 
power and success of its operations. This record is the 
bridge between the Gospels and the Epistles, completing 
the former, inaugurating the latter, and binding both 
together in a blessed unity. 

We are now concerned with the introduction of this 
keystone book — the first eight verses of its first chapter : 
" The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concern- 
ing all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the 
day in which he was received up." 

This book begins by taking hold of the past — linking 
itself at once with the chain of previous history. And it 
is a familiar hand by which this is done. The writer is 
one who is well-known and dear to us. "The former 
treatise " reminds us of that one of the evangelists who 
was best fitted to write the sequel to their story. For 
Luke's biography of the Lord comes nearest to the 
modern historical method in its orderly arrangement, its 
consecutive treatment, its attention to details and evolution 
of principles. 

It is well, therefore, that the reader should be inspired 
with this confidence in the author at the start. " The 
former treatise " is the warrant which recommends the 
new effort to our attention. Who Theophilus was, we do 
not know ; but his name is valuable as suggesting the 
personal element which is so common in the New Testa- 



136 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

ment. How many of its books are directed to individ- 
uals, or in their subscriptions mention the names of per- 
sons as being in the mind of the writer ! This is charac- 
teristic of the gospel itself. It is intensely personal in its 
authorship and its aim. 

But we observe in what light the writer of this book 
regards his previous narrative. It was but a prelude that 
he had written when he described " all that Jesus began 
both to do and to teach, until the day when he was taken 
up." The perfect life was not a finality. From the 
manger to Olivet was but one act in a great drama whose 
scenes were to unfold through the endless future. " Until 
the day when he was taken up " marks the era of the 
incarnation, with its manifestations of Christ in the flesh. 
After that day another era had opened, which Luke is 
now about to describe. 

But the first stage of the divine process must not close 
without due recognition of its great inspiring motive 
power : " After that he had, through the Holy Ghost, 
given commandment unto the apostles whom he had 
chosen." Here is an appropriate reference to the part 
taken by the third person of the Trinity in the earthly 
life of our Lord. 

The Gospels do not mention the agency of the Spirit at 
all times and places, but they evidently assume it as a 
constant quantity. Unto the Virgin the annunciation 
made known that the Holy Ghost would be the paternal 
cause of the incarnation. At the baptism of Jesus it was 
the same Divine presence that bestowed on him the endow- 
ment for his public career. It was in the power of the 
Spirit that he returned from the wilderness and began his 
Messianic work : as it is written that " God anointed him 



ENDUED WITH POWER. 137 

with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about 
doing good and healing all that were oppressed, for God 
was with him." This, then, was the secret source of his 
public abilities — of miracles, parables, and divine mani- 
festations of all kinds : they were the fruits of the Spirit 
which God gave " not by measure" unto him. His life 
had this for its animating principle ; and of his sacrificial, 
meritorious death it is written that he, " through the 
eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish unto God." 

We can understand then why this book of Acts, which 
was to make as prominent the personal presence of the 
Spirit as the Gospels had presented that of the Saviour, 
should thus throw a backward light on the preceding 
narrative, showing that the Holy Spirit was not a new- 
comer on the scene. He who was to be the guide and 
inspirer of the apostles, the ever-present energizer of the 
church, had been equally near and necessary to the Head 
of the church. It was " through the Holy Spirit that he 
had given commandment to the apostles before his ascen- 
sion, and it was by the same Divine agent that he was to 
be with them alway even to the end of the world." 

Having thus struck the keynote of the new dispensa- 
tion by due reference to the old, the writer proceeds to 
show that not only the animating cause, but the subject 
matter of the two eras is the same. The dead Christ is 
still the living Christ. He who was buried out of sight 
has reappeared. The resurrection must be kept in mind 
as the basic fact of the new order of things. That Christ 
died and rose again is to be the text and sermon of the 
gospel to the world, and therefore it must be fully estab- 
lished as a fact by the mouths of competent witnesses ; so 
it is written, "He showed himself alive after his passion 



138 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

by many proofs, appearing unto the apostles by the space 
of forty days, and speaking the things concerning the 
kingdom of God " (ver. 3). 

There were eight of these epiphanies as described : to 
Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to the two dis- 
ciples, to the ten, to Thomas, on the Galilean mountain, 
to the seven, at the ascension ; these were some, if not 
all, of the Divine appearances during those wonderful 
forty days. Why the risen Lord did not abide continu- 
ously with his followers during that time; where he 
resided, and what he did when not with them ; whether 
he was visible at all to any others besides them, are ques- 
tions that we cannot answer. 

But the reason for the manifestations which are re- 
corded is evident in the foundation which he thus laid for 
the faith of his people ever afterward — that the resurrec- 
tion should be the corner-stone of his church. Who has 
not longed, however, that some full record had been kept 
of what he said when " speaking the things concerning 
the kingdom of God " ? What ripeness of instruction 
and fullness of revelation must have marked that teach- 
ing ! as witness a few of the remnants that are preserved 
to us : 

" Being assembled together with them, he charged 
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the 
promise of the Father, which, said he, ye heard of me : 
for John indeed baptized in water, but ye shall be bap- 
tized in the Holy Ghost not many days hence " (ver. 4, 5). 
" The promise of the Father " was not that of a mate- 
rial kingdom soon to be established on the earth ; it was 
that of a spiritual endowment to be conferred on their 
own souls. The dispensation of their endeavor was to 



ENDUED WITH POWER 139 

open as his own Messiahship had been introduced — with 
a public unction from on high. They all remembered 
those dramatic scenes by the Jordan, when the kingdom 
of heaven was announced by the great herald and mul- 
titudes of people prepared for it by the ceremony of bap- 
tism. But this was to be more than paralleled by an in- 
itiatory rite performed not by human, but by divine 
agency — they were to be baptized in the Spirit. 

What was that new function ? When, how, was it to be 
administered ? " Wait — wait at Jerusalem ! " was the 
only answer. And well could he render such advice to 
his disciples who had passed through a similar experience 
himself. How long had he waited for the promise of the 
Father given to himself ! From the age of twelve, when 
his opening nature received its first full consecration, all 
through those eighteen years of manual labor and ob- 
scurity he was waiting for the Divine commission. We 
cannot tell when he arrived at a clear self-consciousness 
of his divine-human nature and work. But that his life 
must have been pointed toward a public career of some 
kind during the carpenter's work in Galilee, we cannot 
doubt. The pure and tender influence of his saintly 
mother, who well knew what lay before her first-born 
son, must have gently but surely moved his character in 
that direction. The teachings of the Spirit bestowed on 
him from earliest years must have filled his mind with 
prophecies and promises of the future soon to be revealed. 
And the ministry of angels, not withheld from the youth 
or from the man, would lead his thoughts and ambitions 
out toward a patriotic and a heavenly career for which 
there was at that time such evident need. The enslave- 
ment of his country by the Romans, the formalism of the 



140 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

priesthood, the corruptions of Pharisees and scribes, the 
superstition of the people, the utter selfishness and world- 
liness of the times, all tended to remind him of a great 
necessity, a crisis, and an oppportunit y which his growing 
nature yearned to meet. 

Thus appealed to and urged by outer and inner im- 
pulses, the cry " I must be about the things of my 
Father" became the motto of his crescent spirit. To 
proclaim the kingdom of God, to dispel the darkness, 
reconcile heaven and earth, restore the throne of David — 
these were the day-dreams and hopes, the resolves and 
ambitions of the advancing youth. Let no one think of 
the young carpenter as plodding through a dull routine 
of unexpectant days, year after year, content with a dim 
life on which the moving sun of revelation had not yet risen. 
Rather imaginean expanding nature ever moving eastward, 
and slirred with premonitions of the dawn each moment. 
His was an attitude of readiness and eagerness, perhaps 
not fully informed or self-conscious, but certainly not 
wholly ignorant or idle. Ancient founts of inspiration 
welled through all his being, the stories of Moses and 
Elijah fired his thought, all the heroism of the past 
was his natal endowment. Thus the boy blossomed into 
youth and the youth ripened into manhood, fit and will- 
ing for something beyond the circle of the Nazarene hills. 

But what was it? When and where would it be? To 
these questions, asked perhaps each morning with his 
opening eyes, no answer came but — wait ! wait ! And this 
he did for eighteen years. What a trial of patience and 
faith ! to feel the stir within him of ripening powers for 
which there was no occasion at the carpenter's bench ; to 
be conscious daily of an increasing life which even his 



ENDUED WITH POWER. 141 

own brethren did not suspect ; to hear the inarticulate 
roar of a nation's need sounding on the horizon like the 
call of a sea that waits for the mariner to come and ex- 
plore it; to know that some great destiny was looking 
for him out in the world and wondering where he was ; 
all this around him and before, but for him nothing but 
wait, wait, through the long and weary years. 

As we now see, this protracted experience was educa- 
tional ; it was the best possible preparation of his human 
nature for the divine work before it, developing as it did 
the virtues of faith and hope in the unseen, endurance, 
patience, and courage, which his public career was after- 
ward to require. 

It was then with a feeling of sympathy that he laid on 
his disciples a similar burden to bear — " wait for the 
promise." They too must learn what it means to be still, 
and know that (i I am God." They must accept the bit 
and bridle of discipline, the curb of self-control. Before 
they were entrusted with the power of command they 
must acquire the faculty of obedience. And for the 
stern tests of the pilgrimage and the battle, public honor 
and success, there was no better novitiate than this of 
humble waiting and docilitv. It is always so. The 
great Commander accepts no volunteer who will not 
submit to this ordeal. Moses must spend forty years in 
the wilderness ; David be driven into exile ; Paul pass 
three years in Arabia ; and Jesus remain silent until mid- 
dle life. Such is the school in which heroes are made. 

And how often in after years did the apostles look back 
to those quiet days in Jerusalem with a pathetic apprecia- 
tion of their value. In the storm and stress of their 
endless warfare, wandering and struggling and suffering 



142 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

over the earth, fightings without and fears within, scat- 
tered far and wide to see each other no more in this 
world, how tenderly did they recall that restful season of 
waiting upon God. Spent in loving communion with 
each other, and in solemn silence and fervent prayer, it 
breathed on them a spell of holy peace which never 
afterward passed away. 

Thus were they prepared for the unction from on high. 
When it came, with awful abruptness and confounding 
splendor, it found them ready to receive this holy chrism. 
All emptied of self, and purified from earthly elements, 
their nature was fit to be made a tabernacle for the new 
Shechinah — the grace of God that bringeth salvation. 

That there was need for such a preliminary discipline 
on their part is evident from the last question which they 
asked of their Master before his departure. Just as he 
was about to leave them on the mount of ascension, they 
clung to him with the cry, " Lord, dost thou at this time 
restore the kingdom to Israel ? " — so low and limited was 
the horizon of their prospect, so dull a conception had 
they of the spirituality of his work. 

Accordingly it was necessary for him to remind them 
of the limitations and the greatness of their function. 
They must be content with a certain restriction and a 
corresponding privilege. On the one hand, weakness ; on 
the other, strength. " It is not for you to know times or 
seasons which the Father hath put within his own 
authority " (ver. 7). Such was their limitation, the side 
of their ignorance, where they must walk by faith. 
" But ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses both at 
home and abroad " (ver. 8). Such was their limitation, 



ENDUED WITH POWER. 143 

the side of their light and strength where they might 
walk by sight. We can understand why the dispensation 
of ignorance was laid on them — " it is not for you to 
know." This was of a piece with the injunction " wait." 
It was part of the discipline of their preparation, con- 
straining them to cultivate humility, patience, faith. 
Perhaps the Master himself had been subjected to such 
a trial in the time of his immaturity, and he knew what 
a developer of character it was — this groping forward in 
the dark. If he referred to such a restriction of his 
human vision when he said, "Of that day and hour 
knoweth no man, neither the Son, but the Father only," 
he indicated thereby his sympathy with one of the 
burdens of the Christian lot. For it is a burden some- 
times hard to bear — this obscurity where we prefer 
enlightenment, this ignorance when knowledge would be 
so desirable. 

What pilgrim in the wilderness but has longed to see 
the journey's end? What worker but has felt that if he 
could only know the measure of his task, it would be so 
much easier to do and to endure ? This is the secret of 
the perpetually recurrent agitation of the great themes 
of eschatologv. Christian students and thinkers and 
w r orkers are found in every generation who insist on 
times and seasons for the fulfillment of prophecy. The 
Lord is at hand. The Second Advent is near. These 
are the echoes of the ancient cry, " Dost thou at this time 
restore the kingdom ? " 

We need not, we cannot refrain entirely from such 
conjectures or hopes. They are part of the natal impulses 
of the child toward the absent parent — the wintry earth 
for the summer sun. Cherished rationally and reverently, 



144 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

they furnish Christian hope with some of its brightest 
themes, and Christian faith with its strongest assurance. 
Nevertheless, the true believer will always remember the 
warning, " It is not for you to know " ; and he will accept 
it with self-denial and patience. For side by side with it 
comes the great compensation, " Ye shall receive power." 

The word " power " stands in the English New Testa- 
ment for different words in the original Greek. In the 
passage, " the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive 
sins," it signifies ability — latent or potential force, which 
may or may not be exercised ; so also in the passages, " to 
them gave he power (right) to become sons of God " ; 
"all this power (authority) will I give thee," etc. 

But this is not the meaning of the term before us. 
As used here, the word "power" is in the original 
" dunarnis" — signifying active, applied force. From it 
we derive the terms dynamite, dynamics — indicating the 
most intense operative agencies. It is this tremendous 
word which is used in the passages : Ci Jesus returned in the 
power of the Spirit"; "there went virtue (dunarnis) out 
of him " ; " with great power gave the apostles witness 
of the resurrection"; "Christ the power of God." These 
are specimens of Divine dynamics, — not of the possibilities 
of grace, but of its actualities, — omnipotence let loose on 
the world like electricity taking the form of a thunder- 
bolt. 

Thus we find the meaning of the promise, "Ye shall 
receive power"; that is, they were not to be endowed 
with authority, — that had been already bestowed in the 
Great Commission, — nor to be vested with potential energy 
like a sword in the scabbard, to be used or not: nay, 
there was to come on them an energy like the sacred fire 



ENDUED WITH POWER. 145 

of the Shechinah, a force all-mastering and compelling. 
And such was the fact at last. The phenomena of 
Pentecost were those of a volcanic eruption ; the results 
which followed were those of an earthquake. The words 
and deeds of the apostles operated on the world with an 
explosive energy so wonderful, so terrible as to leave all 
previous miracles obscure. The gospel was indeed the 
dynamite of God. 

And observe the agent of this endowment : " Ye shall 
receive power (dunamis) after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you." This is the method and result of 
divine empowering. The Spirit is ever the dynamic 
agent of the Godhead. He comes upon, is poured out, 
lavished on the objects of the Divine will ; as when he 
brooded the abyss of chaos and cosmos was brought forth ; 
when he passed into the nostrils of the form of clay a 
man's living soul was born ; when he came on the 
Hebrew workmen and the tabernacle was built ; when he 
inspired the prophets and they became oracles ; when he 
overshadowed the Virgin and Immanuel was begotten ; 
when he descended on man's Jesus and transformed him 
into God's Christ. 

Thus the Holy One is ever the animater, the energizer 
by whom divine perfections are translated into human 
abilities. Accordingly, when the disciples were to become 
apostles they too must pass through this wonderful pro- 
cess, and thus be endued with dunamis from on high. 
This to the end that " ye shall be witnesses unto me, both 
in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto 
the uttermost parts of the earth." 

" Witnesses (martyrs) unto me." Their mission was to 
be one not merely of publication, but of testimony ; not 
13 



146 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

so much telling a story as adducing evidence, and that in 
the presence of incredulity and opposition. They must 
be brought before rulers and judges for the name of 
Christ and there be arraigned and condemned. In them 
the gospel must find advocates who would not fear, and 
sufferers who could endure all that hostile courts might 
inflict. As the Father sent his Son to witness a good con- 
fession before Pilate, so the Son sent his disciples to be 
" witnesses " before the world. 

And how soon the word witness came to mean 
"martyr" history sadly tells. What it costs them to tell 
the story of Jesus and the resurrection Stephen discov- 
ered before the Sanhedrin, and Peter before the chief 
priests, and Paul at Athens. Well might they shrink 
beforehand from such a desperate enterprise, remembering 
what it had already cost their Lord : How could they 
succeed where he, the miracle worker, had failed? Peter, 
still sore and shamed from his denial, Thomas, from his 
doubtings, and all of them with the memory of their de- 
sertion. What kind of witnesses would they be? 

But the promise of dunami§ went with the commission, 
and its fulfillment solved the problem. After that the 
Holy Ghost had come upon them they became a " new 
creation " in Christ Jesus, and then with great dunamis 
gave the apostles witness of the resurrection, " and great 
grace was upon them all." Then the preaching of the 
cross, which was to the perishing folly, became to the 
saved the dynamics of God. For it was not in persuasive 
words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and 
therefore it was like spiritual dynamite to the world, 
casting down imaginations and every hiiHi thine. 

What the world needs and the church must supply at the 



ENDUED WITH POWER. 147 

present time, is such witnessing as this. There is no lack 
of preachers and teachers of the truth — at least here in this 
land of religious light. Our churches and schools abound 
in professional instructors and personal agents whose 
office and pleasure it is to serve the gospel. But are 
they always witnesses in the apostolic sense ? Are they 
willing and able to render their testimony before the 
judgment bar of hostile criticism? Can they carry it to 
the enemies of the cross ? Will they go with it to the 
uttermost parts of the earth ? And if they so do, what is 
the result ? Is the gospel thus preached mighty through 
God ? Is the word a sword that pierceth, a hammer that 
breaketh ? 

How well we know that now, as in the early days, there 
is the same difference between the form of godliness and 
the power, the letter that killeth and the spirit that 
giveth life ! Who has not longed with agonizing desire 
for some of the ancient dynamite with which the word 
once rent asunder and demolished the barriers of sin? 
And yet history assures us that the divine dynamics of the 
gospel are not necessarily identical with the gifts of 
miracle. All through the ages the heroes of the faith 
have found that Christ was to them the power of God. 
But always the apostolic conditions are required for the 
apostolic success. " Ye shall receive power after that the 
Holy Ghost is come upon you." His terms are always 
the same : " Wait for the promise," with self-denial, 
patience, and hope ; " it is not for you to know times and 
seasons," but be content to walk by faith amid the mys- 
teries of Providence. 

Thus let the humble, trustful soul, emptied of self and 
open toward God, watch for the coming of the Lord in 



148 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

his own time and way, and verily I say unto you, 
the " promise of the Father " will be fulfilled in such an 
opening of the heavens and a pouring out of blessing that 
there shall not be room to receive it. 



XII. 

" THE CAKE FOR GOD'S PROPHET FIRST." 

(1 Kings 17 : 1-17.) 

REV. JOHN HUMPSTONE, D. D., 

Pastor Emmanuel Baptist Church, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

The famine was sore in Israel, and the drought also ; 
but God's prophet did not starve. Fed by the ravens 
and refreshed by the brook, Elijah's sojourn at Cherrth 
was a perpetual discipline in the life of faith. 

But it came to pass after a while that the brook dried 
up. What now ? where next ? were surely the ques- 
tions upon Elijah's lips. At last came answer from God : 
Into exile ! — u Get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to 
Zidon." And with the requirement an assurance : " I 
have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." 
The command to fly and the promise to sustain, together 
constituted a new test of faith. Phoenicia was the home- 
land of Jezebel ; the house of Baal was there ; thence had 
come the desolation of Israel. And is God's prophet to 
be nourished in the enemy's country ? and by a widow at 
that ? He, a big and brawny man — is he to live as a 
dependent on a widow's bounty ? But God's bare word 
is the prophet's marching order. Wherever God sends 
him there is the prophet's place. However God will 
support him, that is his stipend : — 

His not to make reply ; 
His not to reason why ; 
His but to do and die 

149 



150 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

if need be. " So he arose and went to Zarephath." But 
when he arrived, what ? Famine sore in Phoenicia, and 
drought as dreadful as in Israel ! A widow at the city 
gate, indeed ; and so far an assurance to faith- ! but a 
widow in want, as soon appears. To the hungry proph- 
et's request for a morsel of bread, there came for answer 
the wail of a calamitous house : " As the Lord thy God 
liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a 
barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am 
gathering two sticks — two would suffice to bake such a 
morsel as remained — that I may go in and dress it for me 
and my son, that we may eat it and die." 

How true to the life is every detail ! Each stroke of 
the story has in it the verisimilitude of fact. It is as 
graphic as the Gospel of Mark ; the perfection of realism 
in narrative. One can almost see the woman's gaunt 
face darken with the shadow of impending death. 

And what said Elijah to such tidings? Did his heart 
fall to his sandal's level? Did his face blanch for fear? 
Neither, for so much as a moment ! Faith, that is worthy 
of the name, does not falter. 

" Fear not," said the prophet to the widow. That is 
faith's constant watchword. " Go and do as thou hast 
said : but make me a little cake thereof first, and bring it 
unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For 
thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal 
shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until 
the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth." 

This is ever faith's way with God's promises. It 
honors them by use. It credits them by affirming them. 
It tests them by putting them to the proof of the event. 
Faith leaves results where they belong — with God. He 



THE CAKE FOR GOD ? S PROPHET FIRST. 151 

has more at stake than his prophet has. AVhen the prom- 
ise is given, all the prophet has to do is to voice it, to 
fulfill its conditions, and to wait for God : — 

To doubt would be disloyalty ; 
To falter would be sin. 

Here, then, is our first lesson : The life of God's 
prophets is ceaselessly a life of faith. God is per- 
petually putting his prophets to the proof whether they 
will believe his unattested word, and do his simple bid- 
ding as straightforward men. It is thus that he fits them 
for further usefulness. Every Zarephath is the precursor 
of Carmel beyond. God can use for prophet only the 
man who is willing to learn a heroic, a dauntless, a daring 
faith. If one who comes 1o God "must believe that he 
is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek 
him," much more must they w r ho go for God be ready to 
take him at his word, and to live strictly by his promise. 
If God can do no mighty works for them who stagnate 
in unbelief, it is certain he can do no mighty works by 
such. The ministry of the word is powerless in propor- 
tion as it is faithless. 

And this is especially true of the prophets whom God 
sends into exile. He whom God expatriates is shut up to 
trust in God. The missionary enterprise, from first to 
last, is a faith enterprise. Its enthusiasms are wholly 
irrational to men who do not believe in the supernatural 
facts of the gospel, and to some even who profess to 
believe them. William Carey, with his watchword of 
missions, — that utterance of sublime faith, — "Attempt 
great things for God ; expect great things from God," 
was a subject of derision to Sydney Smith. But what 
warrant have we for our purpose to displace the false or 



152 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

partial religions of heathendom, but our faith that Jesus 
Christ is God incarnate? That he died a sacrifice, rose a 
Saviour, reigns a King ? And our only sufficiency for a 
mission with such a purpose is our faith in his guarantee 
to be with us to the end. Our only motive, equal to our 
task, is our confidence that what he says of men as lost, 
and of his relation to them as Saviour, is true. Only as 
faith rests upon the invisible Christ and his inviolable 
promise, is any soul equal to the dangers, the duties, and 
the trials of missionary life. So Mrs. Judson found, 
during those dreadful months at Oungpenla. Let her 
own words witness : " If ever I felt the value and efficacy 
of prayer, I did at this time. I could not rise from my 
couch ; I could make no effort to secure my husband ; I 
could only plead with that great and wise Being Avho has 
said, ' Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will 
hear, and thou shalt glorify me ' ; and who made me at 
this time feel so powerfully this promise, that I became 
quite composed, feeling assured that my prayers would be 
answered." So found David Livingstone, surrounded in 
mid-Africa by the hostile tribes of Loanda. Hear his 
journal : " Felt much turmoil of spirit in view of having 
all my plans for the welfare of this great region and teem- 
ing population knocked on the head by savages to-morrow. 
But I read that Jesus came and said, c All power is given 
unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore, and teach 
all nations — and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
end of the world.' It is the word of a gentleman of the 
most sacred and strictest honor, and there is an end on't. 
I will not cross (the River Zambesi) furtively by night, 
as I intended. It would appear as flight ; and should 
such a man as I flee ? Nay, verily, I shall take observa- 



THE CAKE FOR GOD'S PROPHET FIRST. 153 

tions for latitude and longitude to- night, though they may 
be my last. I feel quite calm now, thank God ! " So 
found John G. Paton, among the savages of Tanna. He 
thus records an instance : " Dangers again darkened 
round me. One day, while toiling away at my house, the 
war chief, his brother, and a large party of armed men 
surrounded the plot where I was working. They all had 
muskets, besides their own native weapons. They 
watched me for some time in silence, and then every man 
levelled a musket straight at my head. Escape was im- 
possible. Speech would only have increased my danger. 
My eyesight came and went for a few moments. I prayed 
to my Lord Jesus either himself to protect me, or to take 
me home to his glory. I tried to keep working on at my 
task as if no onp was near me. In that moment, as never 
before, the words came to me, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask 
in my name I will do it ' ; and I knew that I was safe." 

But who am I, that I should talk thus of the mission- 
ary's life of faith in the presence of those who have 
known, with Elijah, the testing of exile, and have made 
proof of its trials? Speak, veterans of the cross! You, 
of all men, are the most eloquent witnesses that the 
prophet's life is ceaselessly a life of faith. 

But what of that poor widow to whom Elijah's mes- 
sage came ? Was there not a testing of her faith too, in 
that audacious summons, " Make me a little cake first, and 
after make for thee and for thy son " ? Have you ever 
read the quaint comment of Bishop Hall upon that de- 
mand : " Oh, what a trial is this of the faith of a weak 
proselyte, if she were so much ! She must go spend 
upon a stranger part of that little she hath, in hope of 
more that she hath not, which she may have. She must 



154 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

part with her present food which she saw, in trust of 
future which she could not see. She must rob her sense 
in the exercise of her belief, and shorten her life in being, 
upon the hope of a protraction of it in promise. She 
must believe that God will miraculously increase what 
she hath yielded to consume. She must first feed the 
stranger with her last victuals, and then after, herself and 
her son. Some sharp dame would have taken up the 
prophet and have sent him away with an angry repulse : 
'Bold Israelite ! there is no reason in this request. Wert 
thou a friend or a brother, with what face could thou re- 
quire to pull my last bit out of my mouth? Had I 
superfluity of provision thou mightest hope for this effect 
of my charity. . . Thou tellest me the meal shall not 
waste, nor the oil fail ; how shall I believe thee ? Let 
me see that done before thou eatest. . . If thou canst so 
easily multiply victuals, how is it tiiat thou wantest? 
Do that beforehand which thou promisest shall be after- 
ward performed ; and there shall be no need of my 
little/ " 

Here, then, is our second lesson : The life of those who 
are appointed of God to sustain his prophets is a life of 
faith. They are required, in the exercise of their benefi- 
cence, as the stewards of God's gifts, to walk, not by 
sight, nor by reason only, but by faith. They are asked 
to put God's prophets first ; themselves and their children 
after. To put him first, because he is GocVs prophet ; 
and God, the giver of their store, will have him sus- 
tained. That they have but little, is no reason why they 
should put self before the prophet. The poor, no less 
than the rich, are taught to pray, " Thy kingdom come," 
before they ask for daily bread ; and as we pray we 



THE CAKE FOR GOD'S PHOPHET FIRST. 155 

should act. They who can offer no larger gift are under 
the same obligation to prefer God in their dovecotes as 
the lord of the manor is to give the firstlings of his stall 
or his fold. The widow, in her lonely struggle, made 
still more strait by her dependent son, is as much subject 
to God's summons as the wife whose husband still fills 
her purse. 

Nor are they to be excused who are but recently, and 
as yet imperfectly, Christians. The woman of Zarephath 
in heathen Phoenicia is called of God to nourish his 
prophet. That missionary is false to the divine plan 
who forgets to teach the convert from heathenism that 
the blessedness of the new life is not in something re- 
ceived only ; but even more, in what is given. In Asia 
and Africa, as well as in America and Europe, " It is 
more blessed to give than to receive," True as all this 
is, however, is it not the fact that, as a rule, the poor are 
more ready to recognize this obligation than the rich ? 
That the Christians lately heathen are more prompt in its 
discharge than the Christians who were born to the heri- 
tage, and live amid the opportunities of civilization ? 
How often do the offerings of the poor shame the gifts 
of the rich ! From the almost empty barrel of many a 
widow comes an offering more free, more generous, the 
sign of a larger faith and the token of a less calculating 
love, than the gifts of many wealthy persons, who cast 
into the treasury of the Lord only a pittance from their 
superfluity. Karens in Burma ; the Christian Congoese, 
still half savage ; the low-caste, indigent Telugus, are 
readier to make the prophet's cake from their handful, 
than some in Christian lands who could well afford to 
bake loaves for his nourishment. The life of faith, as 



156 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

it is related to the consecration of substance to the service 
of God, is of larger growth, sometimes, in hut than in 
palace. 

And what of this life of faith as it is related to the 
questions of administration upon the great field of mis- 
sions ? Have our executive committees and Boards of 
management no lesson to learn at Zarephath? Surely the 
widow's barrel almost exhausted, the widow's cruse 
nearly dry, have their frequent parallel in administrative 
experience. Surely too, the widow's heroic faith might 
teach officials, if they will ponder its significance, that cold- 
blooded calculation may not always control expenditure. 
There is place for the heroism of a missionary faith in 
the council chamber also. Faith has her ventures in 
financial administrations, as in other realms. There too, 
sometimes, the proverb holds, " Nothing ventured, noth- 
ing won." There are emergencies in the lives of proph- 
ets, famine epochs in the course of God's providence, when 
they who would administer wisely must execute in faith. 
Too often, at such times, as Dr. A. J. Gordon said so 
finely in that remarkable paper, in the October (1891) 
number of " The Missionary Review of the World," en- 
titled " The Faith Element in Missions " — too often in 
times of emergency, " Prudence sits over against the 
treasury watching the expenditures to see that faith does 
not overdraw her account." More and more, therefore, 
we must keep in mind that the matter of money for mis- 
sions is matter of faith. 

Funds are already in the hands of those who are God's 
appointed stewards sufficient to send every missionary 
who ought to go, and to evangelize every people as yet 
unreached by the gospel. Why, then, does not money 



THE CAKE FOR GOD'S PROPHET FIRST. 157 

flow in steady stream into the treasury of the Lord, until 
there is enough and to spare? There is only one answer : 
God's people are weak in faith. They have not yet risen 
to that height of daring confidence in God to which this 
Phoenician proselyte attained under a former and less 
luminous dispensation of God's truth and love. We, who 
have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 
are actuallv behind manv to whom that sight was never 
given, in the confidence of our faith, in our consecration, 
in our spirituality. We prefer ourselves as creditors in 
our accounting with God. We must take care of " number 
one," whether God's prophet is cared for or not. When 
we are not wholly selfish in our administration of our 
substance, we are timid, calculating, over-shrewd. The 
lesson taught us by the Zareptan widow is the lesson of 
a wise daring in the surrender of what, unless God 
were, and were true, it would be the rankest folly to 
give. 

The money question is, after all, a spiritual question so 
far as missions are concerned. The question of finance, 
also, is a question of the Holy Ghost. Given pentecostal 
blessing, and pentecostal consecration of property will 
follow. No one but the Holy Spirit can overcome the 
natural and ingrained avarice of some of the members 
of our churches. No one but the Holy Spirit can incite 
souls to that degree of faith which will lead them to set 
at defiance the dictates of selfishness, the maxims of 
worldly policy, the suggestions of over-cautious prudence. 
If we are to dare for Jesus as he deserves, in the sur- 
render of our substance, our minds must be illumined, our 
hearts inflamed, our wills impelled by the unselfish Spirit, 
part of whose glory as a divine Person is, that he prefers 
14 



158 CEXTESARY MISSIONARY ADDRE-SES. 

the Son to himself in his administration of his own powers, 
in the manifestation of his own life. 

What, finally, of the issue to w T hich this widow's testing 
came? The sacrifice made was abundantly rewarded. 
As Bishop Hall says, once more : " Happy was it for this 
widow that she did not shut her hand to this man of God ; 
that she was no niggard of her last handful. Never corn 
or oil did so increase in growing, as here in consuming. 
This barrel, this cruse of hers, had no bottom. The barrel 
of meal wasted not, the cruse of oil failed not. Behold •! 
not getting, not saving, is the way to abundance, but 
giving. The mercy of our God crowns our beneficence 
with the blessing of store. Who can fear want by a merci- 
ful liberality when he sees the Zareptan had famished if 
she had not given, and by giving abounded ? " 

Here, then, is our third lesson : God rewards the faith 
of his prophets and their supporters by gifts which enlarge 
still further the disposition toward its exercise. " There 
is that scattereth and yet increaseth." u Give, and it shall 
be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken 
together, running over." God delights to meet faith with 
supernatural response, to bestow upon it ultra-natural 
reward. She who gave a cake when she was about to 
starve, and preferred God's prophet to herself and her 
son, found that God would not leave her without a wit- 
ness of his power and love in another and even darker 
extremity. She who pinched herself and her son for the 
kingdom of God, received her son back again from the 
dead, at the prophet's hand. 

Still, there is reason to expect the fulfillment of Mala- 
chi's prophecy : " Bring ye all the tithes into the store- 
house, that there may be meat in my house, and prove 



159 

me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not 
open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a 
blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive 
it." So that the converse of what was before said is true. 
The way to secure a new Pentecost is to enlarge our gifts. 
Those of us who are in any degree partakers of the spirit 
of power, must put God to the proof for a wider, a larger 
blessing. If we expect him to grant us, for the sake of 
the church yet unconsecrated and the w r orld yet unsaved, 
some new and surprising access of spiritual power, we 
must make to him some demonstration of our faith, daring 
in its heroism, splendid in its measure, uncalculating in 
its generous denial of self. Are we ready to do it? 
Shall the centennial of modern missions furnish the 
occasion ? 



XIII. 
THE IMPELLING VISION. 

, (Acts 16: 6-10.) 

REV. PHILIP L. JONES, 

Philadelphia. 

Let me briefly review the circumstances of the 
apostle immediately preceding the facts recorded in the 
passage indicated above, on which this address is based. 
Paul was on his second missionary journey. Human 
infirmity had separated him from Barnabas, the friend 
and companion of his first successful tour. To supply 
the deficiency thus created, Paul associated with himself 
Silas, one of the messengers of the council of Jerusalem 
to the Christians assembled at Antioch, and who remained 
there enamored seemingly of evangelistic and missionary 
work. Together Paul and this new helper set forth, 
commended " by the brethren to the grace of the Lord," 
after Barnabas had set sail for Cyprus. They journeyed 
northwestward and came to Derbe and Lystra. Vivid 
memories came to the apostle at this latter place. Here 
he had been stoned and left for dead. Here afterward 
most bravely he had returned and confirmed the disciples 
whom he had won. Here now God had a blessed conso- 
lation for him. Here he found Timothy, destined to be 
to him a son and helper as none other ever was, converted 
to the Lord perhaps by the spectacle of his own dauntless 
heroism. Ah, so often God transforms the field of our 
suffering into the arena of our victory! This young dis- 
ciple Paul would add to his company. And he took and 
160 



THE IMPELLING VISION. 161 

circumcised him for the Lord's cause, as before he bad 
declined to circumcise Titus for the same cause (Gal. 2 : 
1-3). Consistent inconsistency. Blessed is the man 
who when the right leads, above the law of the letter 
can discern the more dominant law of the spirit. 

With his company thus augmented Paul went onward. 
And as he went he delivered the decrees of the first 
church council, and strengthened the churches — made 
them solid in the faith. He went in the name and might 
of the Lord, and the Lord blessed him. 

From the confirmation of his previous work in Lystra, 
and with the reinforcements it had brought him, Paul 
turned northward and then east and west of north, and 
" went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia." Of 
his ministry in the former province, which we are told 
w r as not at this time susceptible of any definite geographi- 
cal limits, we have no record. That he visited Colossse 
at the extreme southwest of the possible boundaries of 
this province, as maintained by some, is declared by Dean 
Alford to be " very improbable." We know far more of 
Paul's w r ork among the Galatians, however, those Celtic 
or Gallic tribes that " emigrated eastward into Asia 
Minor " nearly three centuries before the Christian era. 

The historian of the Acts, it is true, is silent regarding 
this work ; but the apostle himself tell us of it in his 
letter to the Galatian Christians. He was detained here 
much longer than he had planned ; perhaps by some 
bodily infirmity, of which he speaks. He was received 
with a welcome, warm and outspoken. Even their eyes 
these converts would have plucked out and given him 
had it been possible. Many were turned from their de- 
votion to idols by him, and some from the formalism and 



162 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

lifelcssness of the Jews, and the Galatian churches were 
founded. Having finished his ministry here for the time, 
Paul retraced his steps through the province, doubtful 
in regard to his next field of labor. He was " forbidden 
of the Holy Spirit/' — " hindered summarily " by him — 
to preach the word in Asia, the Roman province of that 
name lying along the iEgean Sea. Wonderfully this 
supremacy of the Roman eagles aided in advancing the 
supremacy of Jesus Christ. " Every province conquered 
by the emperor," Renan says, " was a conquest for 
Christianity." 1 So masterfully does God use uncon- 
scious instrumentalities to forward his purposes. But it 
was the Spirit's will that at this time the gospel should 
not be preached in this Roman province. In doubt still 
as to his course, for the Spirit neither then nor now 
will make plain the whole path of a man at once, he 
passed by Mysia, and " essayed, tried by Avay of experi- 
ment, to go into Bithynia," the territory lying to the 
northeast. But again he was prevented. The Spirit — 
the Spirit of Jesus, the Revised Version says — making 
known his will by some internal impulse, or by some ex- 
ternal intimation, " suffered them not." And so, passing 
by Mysia, not as avoiding it, but as regarding their 
work done concerning it, they came to Troas by the sea. 
" Paul was now " — says Stalker, as quoted by Dr. Clark — 
" within the charmed circle where for ages civilization 
had had its home ; and he could not be entirely ignorant 
of these stories of war and enterprise which have made it 
forever bright and dear to the heart of mankind." 

Can we doubt that the apostle so cultured in the wisdom 
of the world upon which he would not depend, and so 
i The Apostles, p. 238. 



THE IMPELLING VISION. 163 

susceptible to local influences which he could always 
command, had his soul fired by great thoughts of the 
opportunities lying just beyond the horizon? Yonder, 
just across the narrow sea, was Greece — classic, storied, 
immortal Greece. Athens was there, and Corinth and 
Philippi. Did the restraining elsewhere mean a beckon- 
ing hitherward? Would the Christ, crowned now by 
many a Jew, be homaged by the Greek as well ? These 
thoughts we are sure must have come to him. 

And then in the night a vision came. In his dream or 
in an ecstasy, it matters little which, a man stood before 
him. Because of some peculiarity of garb or speech, or 
because of the past supremacy of the province, he was 
denoted as from Macedonia. " Come over and help us," 
the figure said appealingly, imploringly. The vision of 
the night inspired action when the day came. "We 
straightway sought to go forth into Macedonia," the 
historian says, changing abruptly from the third person 
singular to the first person plural, because he, Luke, had 
joined himself as companion, or as physician, or as both, 
to the apostle. We sought — that is for means by which 
to cross the sea — to go to Macedonia, " Concluding that 
God had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." 

All doubt and uncertainty had vanished, and by the 
direct guidance of God the pathway pf the first great 
foreign missionary after Jesus Christ was made plain. 

1. Notice as one especial thought — The direct Divine 
guidance of the apostle. 

(1) See the agent of it. This was the Holy Ghost — 
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Ghost forbade them to speak 
the word in Asia, and the Spirit of Jesus : — the Holy 
Spirit still — would not suffer them to go into Bithynia, 



164 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

which they attempted to do. Whatever may be our view 
of the being of the Holy Spirit, — whether it is that it is 
modal, as some think ; or essentially personal, as most be- 
lieve, — -the ministry of the Holy Spirit is real, and in the 
formation and missionary activities of the New Testa- 
ment churches was universal. It was the Holy Spirit 
who brought the thousands to their knees on the day of 
Pentecost, as it was he in whose comfort the churches 
walked and were multiplied. It was the Holy Spirit 
who sent Philip southward toward Gaza to meet the 
Ethiopian, and it was he who, when the evangelist's 
work was done in the desert, dispatched him at once to 
Azotus "to preach in all the cities till he came to 
Csesarea." It was the Holy Ghost who said to the 
church at Antioch, " Separate me Barnabas and Saul," as 
it was he who prohibited Asia to the latter that he might 
turn his face toward Troas. Have we in these days 
somehow, without intending it, and while conscious of the 
fact not knowing so well how to remedy the defect, lost 
our grip on the Holy Spirit, and so have cut the sinews 
of our power ? " The weakness of this age," I heard 
the president of one of our theological seminaries say 
awhile since, " is its lack of dependence on the Holy 
Spirit." 

But without dwelling on the general fact, which is 
deplorable as it is disastrous, is there no lesson for us in 
regard to our missionary operations in that direct guid- 
ance of the apostle by this power from on high ? No 
board, no committee, no church even, issued instructions 
to this apostolic missionary, and told him where to go. 
And yet could either or all have added aught to the wis- 
dom that shaped his course? I know the present, in 



THE IMPELLING VISION. 165 

this as in other things, must needs differ vastly from the 
past which we are considering. We have our compli- 
cated machinery now. We must have it, probably. By 
no word of mine would I throw discredit on its instru- 
mentalities, nor diminish aught of its influence. Nay, 
rather would I augment the efficiency of both. And yet 
do we not sometimes substitute red tape for inspiration ? 
Do we not sometimes adhere to our plans forgetting that 
some things may be planned otherwise than by us? Do 
we not often emphasize unduly the spirit of man, not 
watching sufficiently meanwhile whither the Spirit of 
Jesus may lead ? Paul might need his orders from Anti- 
och ; it was better if he could get them direct from God. 
(2) Note the method of this guidance. It came in the 
form of hindrance first. Paul was hindered from enter- 
ing Asia, and Bithynia, and Mysia, toward which he had 
set his face. God frequently begins in this way with his 
servants ; but he does not stop with hindering. Nega- 
tions are not enough for him. Don't is an initial, and 
not a final term in God's vocabulary. " Thou shalt not" 
belongs to the decalogue : "thou shalt" to the gospel. He 
tears down that he may build up. He stops that he may 
advance. He closes here that he may open there. He 
keeps his servant from Bithynia that he may send him 
into Macedonia. Carey might not go to the South Sea 
Islands that he may do his mighty work among the 
Bengalese. The ostracism of a commercial company 
bars Judson from India that in Burma the pagodas of 
Buddha might give place to the chapels of Christ. If 
your way seems hedged, be not impatient, much less rebel- 
lious. Wait. If the east be closed, the west may open. 
God turns back but to help forward. 



166 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

By an open vision again, this guidance showed itself. 
There on the shores of the iEgean, amid scenes crowded 
with history, faced by a land just beyond the horizon 
more historic still — in the night a man from Macedonia 
came, and stood beseechingly by Paul, and said, or seemed 
to say, " Come over into Macedonia and help us." 
Words these are that have prefaced more calls for mis- 
sionary service than any other ever penned or uttered. 
" Come over and help us." Historic epoch-making 
vision. " On this momentous event hung the Christi&n- 
ization of Europe, and all the blessings of modern civili- 
zation." 1 

What was this figure whose coming was so moment- 
ous to the church ? Some would seem to give him an 
objective reality before the apostle, and regard him as 
expressing the actual desires and longings of the region 
whence he came. 

" In the person of the ' Man of Macedonia/ " says Dr. 
Arnot, " Greece and Rome invite the apostles of the cross. 
Weary and empty, the w T arriors, artists, and philosophers 
of the empire thirst for the living water. Europe on the 
west, as Ethiopia on the south, humbly stretches out her 
hands to God." 2 

Did the actual condition match these eloquent words ? 
We may be helped to an answer if we recall the fact that 
no crowds of " weary and empty " ones greeted the apostle 
and his companions as they landed on the west shore of 
the iEgean, and that their first convert was not a man of 
Macedonia at all, but Lydia of Thyatira, an Asiatic, a 
woman. None the loss gratifying, for neither of these 

1 Schaff's Apostolic Church, Book I, p. 262. 

2 The Church in the House, p. 281 



THE IMPELLING VISION. 167 

facts was this first conquest on European shores ; but 
both of these facts would seem to indicate that to con- 
sider this vision of Paul truly, we must consider it other- 
wise than as objective. 

It was the form of Jesug Christ, some have said, ap- 
pearing to the apostle in trance or dream, and assuming 
therein the form of those whom he would have his 
servant hasten to help. In a sense we may grant this 
true — in the sense that Jesus is in all who need his help 
— in the sense too, that the Spirit of Jesus did not 
turn his baffled messenger from Asia and Bithynia to 
leave him to himself when he had arrived at Troas. 
The moving hand of the Master was equally in the pro- 
hibition and the invitation. But why bring in the super- 
natural where the natural will meet the conditions, save 
as everywhere and ever the supernatural is above the 
natural, as the heavens are above the earth. 

Let me suggest this as the explanation of this beseech- 
ing Macedonian. Our waking thoughts project them- 
selves in dreams, and get therein sometimes a diviner 
touch. 

As angels in some brighter dreams 

Call to the soul when man doth sleep, 
So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes 

And into glory peep. — Henry Vaughan. 

Paul stood fronted by a new, strange land. He had 
been hindered from going whither he would. Before 
him were wondrous opportunities. We cannot deem him 
ignorant of the history that centred in the land beyond 
the sea nor of the people who had played their part 
therein. He doubtless longed to carry them the gospel. 
And then in the night, his thoughts divinely touched, 



168 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

u Transcend their wonted themes/' and the man of Mace- 
donia stood before him, saying, " Come over and help 
us " — run to the aid of those who cry for help. 

So the men of the New Hebrides appeared before 
John G. Paton. So Mackay, of Uganda, saw the people 
of Central Africa. So the Burmese extended their hands 
to Judson. And so likewise the Telugus theirs to Day 
and Jewett, Clough and Downie. And so will it con- 
tinue, the needful stretching out their hands to the need- 
less, those who have not beseeching those w T ho have, until 
the terms of the Great Commission shall have been com- 
pletely obeyed and the gospel have been everywhere 
preached as a witness to the peoples of the world. 

And so too, as this figure was not objective, it was not 
wholly individual. It was more than that. " Men make 
man," Dr. Joseph Parker has said. This was not a man 
but humanity. It was humanity too, beckoning aid to 
the whole area of its needs. Has there been a time, alike 
in our home and foreign work, when a part has seemed 
greater than the whole? When in the gospel, the promise 
of the life that is to come has largely if not wholly over- 
borne the promise of that which now is? If this has 
been so, it is so no longer, at least to the same extent. 
The equipment and multiplication of the medical mis- 
sionary, and the added emphasis laid upon educational 
work, prove how true that statement is as to our w r ork 
abroad, while numerous and increasing remedial measures 
having reference to the lower life indicate its equal truth 
as to that at home. You very likely will not agree with 
me when I say : Grant, for the sake of the argument, that 
the New Theology is right, and the shadow of the life on 
earth does not of necessity project itself into eternity to 



THE IMPELLING VISION. 169 

be perpetuated there with an ever-growing hideousness 
and gloom — are, therefore, the motive and inspiration 
eliminated from missionary effort whether at home or 
abroad ? I cannot so believe. I cannot so feel. Is it 
nothing to preach the gospel to the poor, even if its riches 
were stored in no other than an earthly treasury ? Would 
it be nothing to give the garment of praise for the spirit 
of heaviness even though this life alone were involved 
in the relief? In the latest product in fiction of the 
skeptical thought of the day, and which is as perni- 
cious in its influence as it is able in its discussions, I find 
this sentence : " There never was an honest invigorating 
duty predicated on the hypothesis of another life, that 
does not stand out boldly as a duty if this life is all." * 
I know we are not closed within such narrow con- 
fines as this life alone offers. The vista of hope and 
destiny is infinitely more far-reaching than that. But 
even though it were not, the Macedonian figure would 
still beckon us, and we should have motive to prompt us 
to his help whether he stand amid the shadows of the 
old world or in the turbid depths so rapidly forming in 
the new. 

2. We have the human response to the divine monition. 

(1) It was an immediate response : " And when he had 
seen the vision straightway we sought — spught the means 
whereby — to go forth into Macedonia." There was no 
delay. Immediately they sought for means to do what the 
vision had made plain, and the change in the pronoun, 
from the third person singular to the first person plural, 
indicates that the historian Luke now formed one of the 
party. He knew what he was talking about, and that 

(Jul mire, p. 646. 
15 



170 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

there was the utmost dispatch to obey the Spirit's bidding. 
We so often temporize. We dilly-dally and falter and 
hesitate, and the voice becomes silent, and the vision 
fades out, and the divine monitions pass by, and Ave are 
left face to face with our uncertainly and the night ; and 
sometimes because of this we doubt if the Lord's message 
has come to us at all. 

(2) It was an evangelical response, that which Paul 
gave. He went " concluding (from putting one thing with 
another) that God had called (summoned) us to preach 
the gospel (announce the good tidings of the gospel) 
unto them." He was not a messenger of philanthropy 
primarily, but of regeneration. He did not go to attract 
men with captivating forms of human speech, but to 
make them wise unto salvation. If for a moment he 
turned away from this amid the culture of Athens, he 
speedily turned back to it amid the corruptions of 
Corinth. The path he trod is the path we must tread. 
Christ is before all and beyond all. Whencesoever the 
ethnic religions may have emanated, Christ is the substi- 
tute and consummation of the best, of which their highest 
thought may have been prophetic. 

Christ was the end, for Christ was the beginning ; 
Christ the beginning, for the end was Christ. 

(3) It was a personal response. " We sought to go." 
" The vision created enthusiasm and that enthusiasm was 
contagious." They did not seek to answer the call by a 
small donation. They went, Paul and Silas and Timothy 
and Luke. They went, Carey and Judson and Hanning- 
ton. They went, Vinton and Duff and Waterbury. 
They went, a whole host of them no less worthy of 
mention, brave men and true women. They went. 



THE IMPELLING VISION. 171 

What there has been in this self-giving, of sundered ties, 
of severed families, of shattered health, of early graves, 
of heartache, of soul-ache, only God can know. But 
always where this personal response has been the most 
rich, the harvests ultimately have been the most abund- 
ant. So will it be to the end. The gulf between God 
and man will be closed by men rather than by money. 

In the old heroic days of Rome a chasm yawned before 
the city, so fable tells. Nothing availed to close it. 
At length the oracle said it would yawn still, vast and 
unsightly, until Rome's most precious thing was cast in. 
And then a Roman youth, radiant in mien and armor, 
threw himself into the gulf and it closed and was seen no 
more. 

Brethren, the most precious thing among men is man. 
And where the chasm of sin is, be it in Christendom or 
in heathenism, be it far away or close at hand, it will not 
close save as man shall enter it. The offering of this 
essential element in the redemption of man has not been 
so abundant as it should have been, but it has obtained 
in a wonderful degree nevertheless, and never more 
abundantly than during the hundred years that have 
elapsed since the birth of modern missions. What a 
roll-call it would be if we could repeat the names of those 
who have not counted their lives dear unto them as pitted 
against the cause of Christ. Secular battlefields could 
tell of no such sacrifice, of no such heroism as their 
history would disclose. And the supply will not diminish 
but enlarge. Taat in part is what is meant by the young 
people's movement. Christian Endeavor, and the Baptist 
Union, and the King's Daughters, and the Student's 
Volunteer Association are bringing the flower of the 



172 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

country's young manhood and womanhood, and preparing 
to consecrate it to this personal ministry for men. And 
the continuation of this method of giving man for 
men is in exact accord with the beginning of the gospel. 
Jesus Christ the first great missionary came. A man in 
the highest sense was offered for men. This epitomizes 
redemption. And he must still come. He must still go. 
Allied to his consecrated servants, he must still make his 
soul an offering for sin. Thus, only the man Jesus can 
meet the man from Macedonia ; and this will he do, until 
the visron of the natural man shall fade out and that of 
the redeemed man rise up in his place, and the whole 
earth be filled with the glory of the Lord. 



XIV. 
TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 1 

LEMUEL MOSS, D. D., LL. D. 

Minneapolis, 3Iinn. 

The crowning discovery of modern physical science is 
the unity of the universe — the oneness of all things, 
visible and invisible, in this great universal system of 
matter and force and law. The telescope and the photo- 
graph reveal to us the startling fact that there are a hun- 
dred million suns that can be made manifest to our senses. 
And there is a conviction abroad that this vast aggrega- 
tion of a hundred million suns is as infinitesimal in 
magnitude, when compared w 7 ith the entire universe, as is 
our solar system when compared with all that is manifest 
in the majestic heavens above us. 2 But we are also 

1 This address is here given from the stenographer's notes. No 
attempt has been made to free it from the rhetorical expressions that 
characterize it as a spoken rather than a written discourse. 

2 "Summon up to your imagination the most distant star that can 
be seen with the unaided eye. Then think of the minutest star that 
our most potent telescope can disclose. Think of the tiniest stellar 
point of light which could possibly be depicted on the most sensitive 
photographic plate after hours of exposure to the heavens. Think, 
indeed, of the very remotest star, which, by any conceivable device, 
can be rendered perceptible to our consciousness. Doubtless that star 
is thousands of billions of miles from the earth ; doubtless the light 
from it requires thousands of years, and some astronomers have said 
millions of years, to span the abyss which intervenes between our 
globe and those distant regions. I do not speak of the most distant 
star which the universe may possib^ contain; I only refer to the 
most distant star that we can possibly bring within our ken. Imagine 

173 



174 CENTENARY MISSION APwY ADDRESSES. 

assured that, however far it may be to the rim of the 
universe, all is bound together in one. Everywhere there 
is a reign of law ; but the reign of law is the reign of 
force; and the fundamental, comprehensive, controlling, 
unifying force is the force of attraction. Now we ask 

a great sphere to be described with its centre at our earth, and with a 
radius extending all the way from the earth to this last star knowable 
by man. Every star that we can see, every star whose existence 
becomes disclosed by us on our photographs, lies inside this sphere; 
as to the orbs which may lie outside that sphere we can know nothing 
by direct observation. The imagination doubtless suggests, with 
irresistible emphasis, that this outer region is also occupied by stars 
and nebulae, suns and worlds, in the same manner as the interior of 
that mighty sphere whose contents are more or less accessible to our 
scrutiny. It would do utter violence to our notions of the law of 
continuity to assume that all the existent matter in the universe 
happened to lie inside this sphere; we need only mention such a sup- 
position before we dismiss it as wholly indefensible. I do not make 
any attempt to express the number of miles in the diameter of the 
sphere which limits the extent of space known directly to man. 
What the number may be is quite immaterial for our present purpose. 
But the point I specially want to bring out is that the volume occu- 
pied by this stupendous globe, which includes within it all possible 
visible material, must be but a speck when compared with the space 
which contains it. Think of the water in the Atlantic Ocean, and 
think of the water in a single drop. As the drop is to the Atlantic 
Ocean so is the sphere which we have been trying to conceive in the 
boundless extent of space. As far as we know it would seem that 
there could be quite as many of such spheres in space as there are 
drops of water in the Atlantic Ocean. . . When we remember that, 
by our telescopes and on our photographs, we can discern something 
like one hundred millions of luminous stars in the sky ; and when we 
further believe, as believe we must, that for each one star which we 
can thus see there must be a stupendous number of invisible masses, 
then indeed we begin to get some notion of the extraordinary multi- 
tude in which material orbs are strown through space. Even within 
the distance which can be penetrated by our telescopes, the visible 
stars cannot form the hundredth, probably not the thousandth, per- 
haps not the millionth part of the total quantity of matter.'' — Sir 
Robert Ball, in the Fortnightly Review for May, 1S93. 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 175 

ourselves, as we seek to rise to this high conception of the 
material universe, in all its greatness, in all its splendor, 
and in all its unity, if this is not a parable of something 
higher and mightier and grander than itself. 

If from the contemplation of mere material vastness 
and grandeur we turn to the study of the relationship 
between matter and life, a new conception of inherent 
unity dawns upon us. Cuvier could take a structural 
bone of an animal, even of an extinct species, and recon- 
struct the animal in its habitat, and sketch the relation- 
ship of its individual existence to the whole environment 
and conditions of its life. Prof. Huxley can take a piece 
of chalk and make it tell the geology of the earth, and 
by telling the constitution of the earth, tell by implication 
of the constitution and relationship of universal matter 
and life as well. 

Flower in the crannied wall, 

I pluck you out of the crannies; 

I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 

Little flower. But if I could understand 

What you are, root and all, and all in all, 

I should know what God and man is. — Tennyson. 

Such is the relationship of life and the unity of exist- 
ence, and the interdependence of all things ; for in this 
solidarity 1 of the universe, everything runs into every- 
thing, and each implies the whole. As we struggle to 
grasp and comprehend this higher and more majestic 
thought, we ask, " Is not this also a parable?" 

Again. We look at the relationship of man to man. 

1 "Solidarity (a word which we owe to the French Communists) 
signifies a fellowship in gain and loss, in honor and dishonor, in vic- 
tory and defeat — a being, so to speak, all in the same boat." — Arch- 
bishop Trench. 



176 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

This is not only far higher than the interdependences of 
matter and force, but each individual man is greater than 
the sum of the material universe ; and as we study this 
human relationship, we see that there is an interdepend- 
ence which makes each man necessary to all, and all men 
serviceable to each. What is society ? What does the 
word society mean, but brotherhood, interdependence, 
unity of relationship, possible service and love? A recent 
writer, who tells the fascinating story of the dawn of 
Italian independence, gives us the gratifying intelligence 
that there is coming into the minds of the statesmen of 
our day the thought that each historic and existing king- 
dom is necessary to all the rest ; that you cannot " harm 
one bee in the swarm without harming all " ; and that 
the new conception of the unity of the human race makes 
it clear that a crime against one nationality is a crime also 
against all the rest. 1 It is out of this true conception of 

1 "It is evident that in the brotherhood of States, as in the family 
or the community, the welfare of all must be attained through the 
excellence of each of the members according to his qualities. Every 
weakling, every idler, diminishes the common prosperity. To develop 
each individual to the utmost limit compatible with the general weal 
is the goal towards which destiny urges mankind. Hitherto, this 
process has resulted in the formation of strong individuals, and in 
concentrating and intensifying the traits peculiar to each race; for 
the first commandment given to every creature in the physical world 
is, ' Be strong, if thou wouldst survive.' But individualism, when 
unrestrained and unspiritualized by the recognition of a larger com- 
munion of interests, is selfish and partial ; it uses its strength brutishly ; 
its neighbor is not a brother, but an enemy, to be robbed or crippled 
or enslaved. The past has witnessed the endeavor of race after race 
to make itself supreme by absorbing all the power of its fellows and 
by holding them in subjection. But we stand on the threshold of a 
new age, in which time and distance and the barriers of nature have 
been overcome; when the products of one land can be transported 
swiftly to other lands, and when the utterances and events in one 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 177 

the interdependence and inter-relationship of all these 
great political communities that arises the humane and 
righteous scheme of international law, a potent and influ- 
ential form of the Christian proclamation of universal 
brotherhood. 

One of the latest and most eminent writers on the 
absorbing science of political economy makes it evident 
that, in this unity and interdependence of the human 
race, not only is each man and each community necessary 
to all the others ; but that the welfare of each is the wel- 
fare of the whole. 1 As our brethren prosper Ave prosper, 
and their adversity is our misfortune. Famine and prof- 
ligacy and misgovernment in a nation, with their attend- 
ant poverty and crime, may create great need where they 

hemisphere are known immediately in the other. And now we begin 
to perceive that the fate of each people is interwoven with that of all 
the rest. Interdependence is as necessary as independence, and 
whatever law of trade, whatever intriguing of diplomacy, aims only 
at selfish and local gain, though it seems for a time to benefit the 
egotist, will inevitably weaken him, because it weakens his neighbors. 
The swarm is harmed when a single bee is harmed. The old politics 
took no note of this, nor have present ministries given heed to it; 
but there is the fact, and all the inventions which make commercial 
intercourse easy, and disseminate knowledge, are prophetic of the 
ultimate solidarity of mankind. A crime against one will at last be 
seen to be a crime against all." — The Dawn of Italian Independence, 
by William Roscoe Thayer, vol. I, pages 2, 3. 

1 ''Economic science teaches as an absolute truth that everybody 
is profoundly affected for the better by the prosperity of everybody 
else." "Always in our science (Political Economy) the grand con- 
clusion is in sight, that the real welfare of everybody is bound up 
with the real welfare of everybody else." — The Unseen Foundations 
of Society, by the Duke of Argyll. Quoting these propositions, and 
approving them, the Quarterly Review (for April, 1898, page 447) 
says: "The earth is the Lord's. The earth has he given to the sons 
of men — to the race, not to individuals; and not as absolute owners, 
but as stewards." 



178 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

exist, but they cannot make of such a nation good cus- 
tomers for other nations, nor fruitful ministers in the 
world's service. Another Christian writer on the same 
high theme declares that the whole tendency and scope of 
the complex and vital interactions of society, under the 
influence of Christian truth and love and law, is the per- 
fection of man through the perfection of society; that 
man cannot be nobly and completely man without the 
ministration of his brethren and without reciprocal min- 
istration to his brethren. 1 

Now as I seek to comprehend these high thoughts and 
rise to this wide conception of humanity, — this oneness 
of the race, this vital inter-relationship of all men with 
all men, this dependence of the prosperity of all upon 
the prosperity of each, this harm that comes to the in- 
dividual through the harm that comes to society, — I ask : 
" Is not this , also a parable ? " Does it not point to 
something still higher and even more divine than itself ? 
Is there not in it the beginning of a glorious and far- 
reaching revelation, loftier, holier, and sublimer than all 
that can be revealed through the limitless immensity of 
the material universe, through the mighty generalization 

1 "The end of Christianity is twofold— a perfect man in a perfect 
society. These purposes are never separated ; they cannot be sepa- 
rated. No man can be redeemed and saved alone; no community 
can be reformed and elevated except as the individuals of which it is 
composed are regenerated. . . If there were a man who had no 
neighbor, he could not obey God's law; he could not be a man, in 
any proper sense; he could not exercise the powers and functions of 
the human nature; the perfection of manhood would be utterly 
beyond his attainment. This vital and necessary relation of the 
individual to society lies at the basis of the Christian conception of 
life. Christianity would create a perfect society ; it would bring 
forth perfect men, and to this end it must construct a perfect society." 
— Tools and the Man, by Dr. Washington Gladden, pp. 1, 2. 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 179 

of human science, through statesmanship, through the 
mere earthly relationships of any political commonwealth 
or co-operative society? It seems to me that these are 
but steps in the process by which God is uncovering to 
the human mind that which is highest, deepest, and most 
comprehensive in the divine and eternal relations of men 
to each other, and to all the intelligences of the spiritual 
universe, through their relations to God. 

Why was it, think you, that the choir of angels came 
to sing over the manger at Bethlehem? What means 
these celestial voices proclaiming " Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace toward men of God's good 
pleasure " ? When Christ was born, I hear in it the an- 
nouncement of the solidarity of the spiritual universe ; 
not simply the exultation and joy of holy beings over 
the prospect of new and ever-increasing accessions to 
their ranks as the centuries move on, but a declaration 
that they were now finding their spiritual brothers and 
participating in a sublime revelation from God of the 
original and eternal unity of all rational beings made in 
the image of God. These were some of the things that 
the angels "desired to look into"; that they might, if 
possible, attain unto an apprehension of the thought and 
purposes of God to be accomplished as the ages pass away. 
Or, what is the meaning of that impressive declara- 
tion of our Lord : " There is joy in heaven over one sin- 
ner that repents " ? Is it simply the announcement of 
the delight of the spiritual mind over the attainment of 
like spiritual excellence by other minds? Is it not 
rather the revelation, the uncovering of the momentous 
truth that all spiritual beings, in heaven, on earth, in all 
worlds, are akin ? What, again, is the meaning of that 



180 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDEESSES. 

exultant exclamation of the apostle, that " God created 
all things; in order that now unto the principalities 
and powers in heavenly realms, to the highest hierarchy 
of the celestial hosts, there should be made known by 
means of the church the manifold wisdom of God, accord- 
ing to the purpose of the ages which he purposed in Christ 
Jesus our Lord " ? What is this but the inspired declara- 
tion of the deep, eternal, comprehensive, and all-inclusive 
oneness of the spiritual intelligences of all worlds as the 
children of God ? 

What significance have all these disclosures of truth for 
us? Where do they place our highest relationship? 
What revelation do they make concerning our true kin- 
ship? What is the appeal which they bring to your 
thought, to your imagination, to your anticipation, to 
your hope, to your longing, to your present desire and 
determination ? Oh, the height, and the depth, and the 
length, and the breadth of the love of God in Jesus 
Christ. In very deed it passeth knowledge, and draws 
all spiritual beings unto itself, like the mighty attractive 
energy that binds together the universe, like the incredi- 
bly swift and unfailing light that crosses every void and 
goes everywhere throughout the limitless whole. The 
love of God gathers within itself all these countless hosts 
of spiritual beings, capable of apprehending, of knowing, 
of revering, of loving, of resembling God. " Of him, 
and through him, and to him, are all things ; to him be 
the glory forever. Amen." 

Now it must be that in this interdependence, this 
mutual relationship of all spiritual beings, the welfare of 
each is vitally connected with the welfare of all. No 
man can be himself, in the fullness and completeness and 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 181 

possibility of his being, unless all men are not only heirs 
of like grace and like possibility, but also through the 
ministration of each to all, all shall share in the endeavor 
toward the realization of their perfection. What is the 
profoundest fact concerning this humanity of ours ? Ask 
our honored secretary what was the thought that pene- 
trated his being and burned itself into, his inmost soul, 
as he traveled among the different races of men? I fol- 
lowed him in thought, as you followed him, through 
Japan, through China, through India, into Egypt and 
into Palestine, by all the great rivers of the earth, across 
all oceans, through all seas, among these various races, 
apparently so unlike in feature, in speech, in dress, in 
manners. But, think you, that it was this variety, this 
diversity, this separation, this unlikeness, that forced 
itself upon his thought, and commanded more and more 
his sympathy, and interest, and attention? Nay, I am 
sure that again and again he said : " God indeed made 
of one all nations of men that dwell on the face of the 
earth." What he saw, what he felt, what he appreciated, 
what he realized as never before, was this unity of 
humanity — the oneness of the race in Adam, in Christ, 
and in the heritage and possibilities of a divine life. 

Man as a race is one in his origin. Whatever he may 
be to-day, whatever you may find in him of alienation or 
of degradation, be sure that there is at the bottom, there 
is at the centre, in the inmost core of his life, this attesta- 
tion of his origin from God. They tell us that the other 
day, in one of the great monasteries of the East, there 
was found a most precious manuscript of the New Testa- 
ment. Upon examination it was found to be what in 
learned phrase they call a palimpsest. And what is a 
16 



182 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

palimpsest ? It is a parchment that has been used a 
second time. In this case there was originally the writ- 
ing of the word of God, the teachings of Jesus Christ. 
But one day an idle monk had a story to tell, some 
fiction, some trivial chronicle, some worthless legend ; 
taking the manuscript of the divine word, he erased the 
writing, and on the partially cleansed parchment he wrote 
his worthless story, his trivial tale. By-and-by there 
came one who discerned beneath this worthless writing 
the pristine record of divine truth ; he cleansed away that 
which was secondary, that which was temporary and 
valueless ; and he restored that which was original, 
glorious, and eternal. Man is such a manuscript, a 
palimpsest. I find in man's nature, at the core of 
his being, the autograph of God, a divine writing 
that can never be completely effaced. But oh, it may be 
written over, as indeed it has been, by the foul scribbling 
of sin, and thus made to read something very different 
from the original self. There will come One, and One 
does come, who, beneath that which is unworthy, that 
which is false, that which is perversion from God, can 
discern that which is original and divine, and which, 
thanks to the subtle chemistry of God's love, can be 
restored. 

Yes ; man has at the centre of his being the authentic 
and indelible " image and superscription " of God. Let 
him therefore " render unto God the tilings that are 
God's." God is Spirit, and is seeking spiritual worship- 
ers. Man is spirit also, and therefore he can worship 
God. He was made in the divine likeness. By his es- 
sential nature he is, as Paul approves the Greek poets for 
saying, " the offspring of God," being of the same race 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 183 

or stock, as parent and offspring are of necessity of the 
same stock. Therefore, the mighty apostolic argument 
goes on, God '•* is not far from each one of us, for in him 
we live and move and exist." 

Speak to him, thou, for he hears, and Spirit with spirit can meet ; 
Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. 

— Tennyson. 

Man is infinitely nearer to God than he is to the 
highest earthly brute, whatever the scientist may say. 
The brute is " far off from each one of us," and we do 
not " live and move and exist " in the brute. We can 
commune with God, but we cannot commune with the 
brute, for there is no community of nature between us. 
We are separated from the brute by " the whole diameter 
of being." There is a bridgeless gulf between us and 
the highest animal, with no conception of any possible 
intercourse across it. And why should there be ? The 
animal has nothing to tell us, and no capacity for learn- 
ing: what we niio;ht tell him. Between us and God there 
is no gulf except the chasm made by sin, and this is com- 
pletely bridged in Jesus Christ. Augustine speaks for 
all humanity when he cries out : " Thou hast made us, O 
God, for thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in 
thee." And so does the psalmist speak for the race when 
he exclaims : " As the hart panteth after the water- 
brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God." * 

1 Prof. Henry Drummond is quoted as saying (in a lecture in Min- 
neapolis, June 5, 1893, and reported in the daily papers) that "it is 
not hard for one to see a greater likeness between the lowest man 
and the highest ape than between the highest and lowest man." That 
is a gross exaggeration of mere superficial qualities, and a complete 
overlooking of the essential and permanent. The lowest man has in 



184 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

Moreover, this race of ours lias not only the unity of 
its divine origin, but also the unity that comes through 
its one disease of sin. All men are sick of the same 
sickness ; all men are depraved with the same alienation 
from God. But it is a happiness to say they have also 
this in common, that they are all alike capable of the re- 
newal and restoration of that which was the original 
autograph of divine purity and truth and blessedness. 
In a word, man is capable of salvation, capable of being 
restored into the likeness of God and conformed again to 
the divine image. 

Now, what has this to do with us ? What is the great 
lesson enforced upon us as to our relationship to our fel- 
low-men ? How shall this restoration take place ? How 
shall men be brought again into this divine communion 
and intercourse, and how shall these limitless possibilities 
of man be realized, and man stand again in more than 
his original glory, perfect before God through the com- 
munication of a divine life? 

God has so ordered it that our fellows can rise only by 
our leave and our co-operation. God has so made us our 
brothers' keepers that they can realize in themselves that 
which he intends concerning them only by the faithful- 
ness and completeness of our ministry to them ; by the 
communication of all that is implied in this inter-depen- 
dence and vital relationship of man to man. The salva- 
tion of all is necessary to the salvation of one. 

him all the capacities and possibilities of the highest man. He can 
know the universe and himself, he can know God. He can become 
all that any man can become. Christian missions is demonstrating 
this in India, in Africa, in Patagonia, and Terra del Fuego. The 
ape cannot become this. There is for it no such capacity or possibil^ 
ity. Otherwise it would cease to be an ape and be a man. 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 185 

One of our political orators declared in one of the 
great national conventions, in the fervor and earnestness 
of his appeal, concerning the intimate political relations 
of our own people, that " the vote of no man is safe un- 
less the votes of all men are safe/' 1 And he spoke a 
more magnificent truth than, perchance, he himself appre- 
ciated. But can it be that my salvation is dependent on 
the salvation of my brother ? Can it be that no man is 
saved until all men are saved ? Can it be that no man is 
completely redeemed and restored to the likeness of God 
unless all men are thus reached, and rescued, and re- 
stored, and perfected in the divine image ? I have been 
told that this proposition of mine is Universalism. Uni- 
versalism ! Why, the paralyzing and sterile Universal- 
ism that I have been accustomed to hear is, " That to 
save all you need save none " ; that all men are saved 
whether they will or not. What a movement there would 
be through the few and scattered and very dry bones of 
our American Universalism, were some one to stand be- 
fore them, and with the voice of a prophet and the heart 
of an apostle were to tell them : " You cannot be saved 
unless through your instrumentality the race is saved ! " 

My brother, what do you mean by salvation ? Is it 
simply taking refuge in the ark while the tempest and 
the storm sweep over the great majority of the race ? Is 
it simply the selfish bestowing of yourself in some strong- 
hold of security, while all the neglected world perishes 
and goes down to ruin ? What is your conception of 
salvation ? Is it some easy process that takes place, as 
it were, in one's sleep, in some unconscious dream that 

1 Hon. J. Sloat Fassett, at the National Kepublican Convention, 
Minneapolis, June, 1892. 



186 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

transfers you from one side of the safety line to the other 
side of the line without touching any one, and without 
any one else knowing it ? Salvation ! Do we know what 
is its meaning? Have we risen to the height of its 
thought ? Do we comprehend the immense scope and 
compass of salvation ? In its inception it is the faith 
in Almighty God that anchors the soul to him. In its 
process, in its unfolding, in its development, it is unques- 
tionably the companionship of God through the Holy 
Spirit ; the divine intercourse and fellowship that culmi- 
nates in full likeness to Jesus Christ. When shall we 
reach it ? What is the diameter of this mighty orbit ? 
What is the infinite sweep of this mighty circle of signifi- 
cance that we strive to gather up in the wonderful word 
salvation f How shall we reach it ? By selfishness, by 
narrowness, by meanness, by the contraction of our 
thought, and aspiration, and sympathy, and interest, and 
desire to the infinitesimal atom that constitutes our own 
personality ? 1 How can a man be saved unless there 
courses through his being the celestial tide of almighty 



ln What a chorus of diverse and yet concordant testimony gathers 
around this point. Aristotle, the Grecian philosopher, heathen though 
we sometimes call him, was a man of marvelous insight into the 
nature and the structure of society. He tells us that " a prince ex- 
ists for his people," and we have learned that the application of this 
fundamental truth extends far beyond the sphere of political sover- 
eignty. "Nobility obliges" is the same thought enlarged as a 
maxim of polite society, though often perverted and reversed ; but 
the obligation of loving service for all is the very essence of Christian 
nobility. Christ gives the loftiest form and mightiest sanction to 
this sentiment when he says: "Inasmuch as ye have rendered 
needed and thoughtful service, or have not rendered it, unto one of 
the least of these, my brethren, ye did it, or did it not, unto me." 
Paul shows the same spirit : " Both to Greeks and to barbarians / am 
debtor." "I could wish to be myself accursed from Christ for my 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALL. 187 

love, elevating him and holding him in sympathy, inter- 
est, and aspiration to the Almighty and Eternal One, and 
filling him with divine blessedness ? Yes ; " This is life 
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, 
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 

Oh, I see the great apostle in the crisis of his perilous 
voyage from Csesarea to Rome. In the hour of disaster 
and shipwreck he is in form and fact a prisoner, and yet 
he is the sovereign of the ship and the master of the 
occasion. I hear him say that the God whose he was and 
whom he served stood by him in the darkness and in the 
storm, and said : " Fear not, Paul ; thou must be brought 
before Caesar ; and lo, God has given thee all those that 
sail with thee." Mv brother, you are the centre of an 
influence that goes around the globe, that fills the spiritual 
universe, that has its source and seat in the heart of God ; 
and in some way, and to some degree, God has given to 
you all that sail with you, and your fidelity or neglect 
shall affect their destiny. 

To save one, we must save all. I know of no salvation 
that can come into the human life except by personal 
faith in Jesus Christ. I know of no other probation for 
the human spirit than that which takes place in this 
lifetime of its earthly experience. But oh, the extent of 
the influence that goes from this lifetime of existence 

brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." " Who is weak and 
I am not weak ? "Who is offended and I burn not ? " 

There be sad women, sick and poor, 
And those who walk in garments soiled; 

Their shame, their sorrow, I endure* 
By their defeat my hope is foiled. 

The blot they bear is on my name ; 

Who sins, and I am not to blame? — Lucy Larcom. 



188 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

throughout the human race and throughout the ranks of 
all spiritual intelligences. It is like the point of light, 
minute indeed, but the influence of it pervades the entire 
universe. " Ye are the light of the world." 

To save one we must save all. Do I tell you that you 
cannot have a genuine life and faith in Jesus Christ 
unless all men exercise a like faith in him ? No ; but I 
do tell you that the only proof that you have a living 
faith in Jesus Christ that unites you to the heart of God, 
is that your sympathy and influence and longing go out 
to every spiritual being whom God has made. You 
cannot go to heaven alone; you cannot be a Christian and 
wrap yourself around with a selfish and isolated individ- 
uality ; you cannot expect to be close to the heart of God 
unless you love as God loves. Is there any limit to it? 
Is there any partiality in it ? " God so loved the world 
that he gave his only begotten Son." 

You will perchance tell me that the Scriptures read : 
" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Listen 
now once more to this marvelous commission of our Lord 
and Master : " All power, all authority, all prerogative is 
given unto me in heaven and upon earth. Go ye, there- 
fore, into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature, to the whole creation. He that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved ; he that believeth not shall be 
condemned " — condemned. He that believeth not shall be 
condemned with him that goeth not. They shall be con- 
demned together. Their condemnation shall be equal. He 
that goeth and he that believeth shall rejoice together. 
And is there no limit to our commission? Is there no 
creature excepted from the sovereign command that is 
given us? How can we hope for the perfection that is 



TO SAVE ONE WE MUST SAVE ALE. 189 

possible to these capacities of ours, that allies us to the 
angels, that allies us to the Saviour of the world, that 
allies us to God. Jesus Christ is the measure, the model, 
the archetype of our aspiration and hope. And how can 
we expect to rise to the height of this perfection, to " the 
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," unless 
our sympathy and prayer and purpose and actual effort 
circle the globe as his love lias circled it, unless they em- 
brace every creature as his grace embraces all. 

I ask no heaven till earth be thine ; 
No glory-crown while work of mine 
Remaineth here. When earth shall shine 

Among the stars, 
Her sins wiped out, her captives free, 
Her voice a music unto thee ; 
For crown, new work give thou to me ; 

Lord, here am I. 



XV. 

THE INFLUENCE OF A CENTURY OF MIS- 
SIONS ON CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY, 

ALVAH HOVEY, D. D., LL. D., 

President Newton Theological Seminary, Newton, Mass. 

When asked a few weeks ago to speak at this anniver- 
sary on " The Influence of a Century of Missions on 
Christian Theology," I readily consented to do so. But 
it is no more than honest to confess that ray desire to 
verify and explain the beneficent influence of missions on 
the science to which the best years of my life have been 
given, diverted my attention in some degree from the vast 
amount of knowledge presupposed in a thorough treat- 
ment of the subject, an amount of knowledge which I 
did not possess and could not acquire. For while it was 
possible to ascertain with some degree of exactness the 
notes of difference between the theology which was taught 
by good men a hundred years ago, and the theology which 
is taught by such men to-day, it is an almost infinitely 
difficult task to discover the many subtle and delicate in- 
fluences which have contributed to the change. 

Christian theology teaches that God is partially revealed 
in nature,, and it has therefore been sensitive to all the 
voices which have come to it from the closest students of 
nature. During the past century such voices have been 
exceedingly numerous and penetrating. Christian theol- 
ogy assumes that religious principles are to be examined 
and co-ordinated by human reason, and it has therefore 
190 



INFLUENCE OP A CENTURY OF MISSIONS. 191 

been sensitive to all the cautions and encouragements 
which have come to it from teachers of psychology or 
metaphysics. These also have been numerous, but their 
teaching has not been always to the same effect. Chris- 
tian theology is founded on historic facts made known to 
us by written documents, and it has therefore been sensi- 
tive to the testimony of critics who profess to solve the 
riddles of the past, and to correct the errors of our inter- 
pretation. Much of their work has been useful, but their 
task is not yet finished. 

Beyond question, this century of missions has been one 
of movement, of invention, of discovery, of research, of 
criticism, of speculation, and of progress. Never were so 
many theories broached, so many customs changed, so 
many hopes kindled, so many failures lamented, so many 
advances made. It has been a great century, full of life, 
effort, competition, co-operation. And Christian theology 
has been in the heart of it all, warning or consoling or 
inspiring, with a voice as little changed by the turmoil as 
any that could be heard. Indeed, every other science has 
had an eye to theology, and every human enterprise has 
consulted or opposed it. And so it bears the stamp of 
the century upon it, the clear impression of an age dis- 
tinguished above many others for its missionary spirit. 

The foreign mission enterprise, started in England a 
hundred years ago by William Carey, was a great religious 
movement, and the influences of such a movement are 
always far-reaching and manifold. For nothing under 
the sun is more certain than this, that belief and con- 
duct, creed and life, act and react with silent cogency 
upon each other. If it were not in our power to point 
out doctrinal changes which could be traced to the 



192 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

influence of missions more naturally than to any other 
influence, it would nevertheless be safe to affirm the 
existence of such changes. For the greatness of the 
enterprise, appealing to the noblest impulses of the heart, 
must have enlarged the range of Christian thought and 
intelligence in the case of all who put their hands to this 
work. But it is possible, we think, to specify certain 
differences of tone and emphasis and proportion in the 
treatment of particular doctrines, which distinguish the 
Christian theology of to-day from that prevailing at the 
end of the last century. 

Notice, first, that in speaking of God there has been a 
perceptible transfer of emphasis from his natural attributes 
to his moral, and especially from his absolute control to 
his gracious love. In other words, God's sovereignty 
filled a larger place in the teaching of Calvinistic divines 
then than it does now, while his loving-kindness filled a 
somewhat smaller place. There is no antagonism between 
these doctrines when properly stated ; both of them have 
been held and taught bv sound theologians from that dav 
to this, yet not at all times with equal clearness and 
force. For the sovereignly of love is far more inscru- 
table than the sovereignty of power, moral supremacy is 
far more incomprehensible than physical or dynamic. 

At this point we may perceive the influence of a century 
of missions on Christian theology — a silent, unobserved, 
yet real influence, bringing the minds of thoughtful men 
closer to the true nature of God's supreme authority over 
moral beings. The pioneers of this great enterprise must 
have perceived that God's eternal purpose to recover the 
lost through his Son was to be carried into effect by 
means adapted to their moral nature, not by the sole 



clearly 
event " to 
17 



.uiroL" 

missionary 



INFLUENCE OF A CEXTUBY OF MISSIONS. 195 

enterprise cherishes. It calls upon Christians to obey the 
command of their Lord. It sets the world in its sin and 
sorrow, its darkness and woe, before them, and without 
intermission, from year to year and lustrum to lustrum, 
with a thousand voices says to them, " These are your 
neighbors, your brothers, and you are to serve them with 
a quenchless love." The whole atmosphere has vibrated 
at times with appeals for help in giving the gospel to the 
nations. The press has been associated with the living 
voice in declaring the magnitude and urgency of the work. 
Periodicals, religious and secular, volumes, reports, pam- 
phlets, and leaflets, have been used as channels for mis- 
sionary light and eloquence. Statistics, vital, educational, 
and moral, have been brought to bear on the hearts of 
men and women throughout Christendom. Instances of 
personal devotion and of combined effort have been 
faithfully reported for the encouragement of fainting 
spirits. And the principal stress has been laid upon love 
and service. The practical side of Christian life has been 
pushed to the front and the theology of our day has felt 
its influence. 

Doubtless the faith of God's people has also been 
strengthened by the work of missions, especially the faith 
which relies on the promise of Christ for success in evan- 
gelizing the world. For in the realm of spiritual action 
we cannot give more than we have received. We lift up 
our hands to God that he may fill them with the blessing 
which is then offered by us to men. Apart from Christ 
we can do nothing. Our missions prosper because the 
promise of Jesus is fulfilled : "Lo, I am with you alway, 
unto the end of the world." 

But while the work of missions calls for genuine faith, 



195 CENTEJSABY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

and gives it abundant exercise, there is reason to believe 
that its influence in cultivating love and the habit of con- 
secrated service, is still more pervasive and controlling ; 
so that the point on which special stress is laid in our 
theological creed has come to be love, rather than trust ; 
and action, rather than devotion. " And now abide 
faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest of these 
is love." 

Notice, thirdly, that in maintaining the truth of the 
Christian religion there has been a perceptible transfer 
of emphasis from its miraculous to its moral phenomena. 
The evidential literature of the last twenty years of the 
century, w 7 hen compared with that of the first twenty 
years, furnishes ample proof of this statement. For of 
late it has been frequently acknowledged by good men, 
that a belief in miracles can only be justified by evidence 
coming from other sources that Jesus Christ was a super- 
natural being, while a hundred years ago it was com- 
monly affirmed that faith in Christ as a supernatural be- 
ing is fully justified by the evidence which proves that he 
wrought many miracles. The change is worthy of close 
consideration. The efficient causes of it must be sought 
in physical science and speculative philosophy. For the 
unparalleled growth of physical science during the pres- 
ent century has shown with ever clearer light the regu- 
larity of all the processes of nature, and has cultivated a 
distrust of all evidence for miracles. Moreover, the dis- 
trust thus fostered agrees with a strong tendency of 
philosophical thought to classify events and reduce them 
to a fixed order. This tendency is so powerful in many 
minds as to make them willing to abandon their instinct- 
ive belief in human freedom for the sake of comprehend- 



INFLUENCE OF A CENTUKY OF MISSIONS. 197 

ing all parts of the universe under one kind of force and 
law. It is not, therefore, surprising that the joint influ- 
ence of natural science and philosophy upon certain per- 
sons has rendered the record of miracles a stumbling- 
block in the way of their accepting the entire gospel 
narrative, though they recognize the spiritual beauty of 
Christ's life and teaching, and on this account, perhaps, 
believe in miracles. 

Meanwhile, the moral power of the Christian religion 
has become more and more evident, and many able apol- 
ogists have appealed to it as the chief and sufficient, if 
not the only, proof of its heavenly oiigin. " By their 
fruits ye shall know them/' is as fair a test of the quality 
of religions as of trees, and it is one which distinguishes 
the Christian religion from every other, and assigns it a 
divine pre-eminence. What this religion does reveals 
what it is, and assures the hearts of its friends that " the 
gates of hades will not prevail against it." But the 
moral power of their religion is revealed to Christians 
in two ways : by what it does for themselves, and by 
what it does for others ; by personal experience, and by 
careful observation. In other words, its truth is verified 
by their own consciousness, and by the effect which it is 
seen to have on the lives of men. And the ever-increas- 
ing force of this kind of evidence for the Christian re- 
ligion has rendered many persons indifferent to the proof 
from miracles, while it has led others to place moral 
events of the present day in the foreground, and miracu- 
lous events of the first age in the background, when the 
evidences of Christianity are grouped together. 

Now while it is certain that the efficient cause of this 
change has been the joint influence of physical science 



198 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

and speculative philosophy, it also appears that the suc- 
cess of missions during the century has facilitated it by 
making the moral evidence for our holy religion more 
cogent and satisfying to reason. Looking at the change 
from this point of view we rejoice, though not without 
trembling. For it should never be forgotten that the 
truth of our religion depends on the supernatural birth, 
personality, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that, if 
these were facts, other miracles wrought at his word can- 
not be judged improbable. Nor should it be overlooked 
that the more certainly miracles are proved to be alto- 
gether extraordinary and exceptional events, the more 
conclusively does their occurrence in the life of Christ 
prove that the author of our holy religion was in reality 
from above, and divine as well as human. We cannot, 
therefore, rejoice that the evidence from miracles is 
treated with indifference or distrust by any Christian 
teacher, though we do rejoice that the evidence from 
Christian life has become more cogent and decisive than 
it once was ; and this may be attributed in no small de- 
gree to the influence of a century of missions. 

Notice, fourthly, that in respect to heathen nations and 
religions the tone of our theology is not precisely what it 
was a hundred years ago. The difference cannot, indeed, 
be weighed or measured, outlined or defined, but it may 
be suggested by calling it briefly a change of tone. The 
work of missions among the heathen has penetrated with- 
out violence their temples and shrines, their homes and 
hearts, and has made us comparatively familiar with 
their knowledge and ignorance, their habits and preju- 
dices, their traditions and fears. We have begun to look 
upon them with brotherly kindness, and to appreciate in 



INFLUENCE OF A CENTURY OF MISSIONS. 199 

them the working of natural affection and of conscience, 
together with a certain blind feeling after God. They 
are much nearer and more real to us than they could have 
been to our forefathers in 1792; and some of the re- 
ligions which they cherish are seen to possess a modicum 
of truth in connection with dangerous error. To many 
of them " the heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
expanse proclaims his handiwork." To many of them 
" that which may be known of God " by his works " is 
manifest " ; " for since the creation of the world, his in- 
visible things are clearly seen, being perceived by the 
things that are made, even his eternal power and 
divinity." A careful comparison of natural religions 
with one another, and with the truth as it is in Jesus, has 
given us, not only a better knowledge of those religions, 
but also of the people who cherish them, and indeed of 
the human heart itself; and the result is more charity, 
more love, more desire to preach the gospel to all man- 
kind, and more hope that in the end " a great multitude 
which no one can number, out of every nation and all 
tribes and peoples and tongues," will receive it. 

For the gospel has been proved to be " the power of 
God unto salvation to every one that believes, to the Jew 
first, and also to the Greek." Before our eyes, in these 
latter days, it has been found a spring of life to human 
souls the world over, and we may now say without fear 
that whoever can be delivered from the bondage of sin by 
any conceivable process that leaves him still a man, can 
be delivered by the grace and truth of Christ. This fact 
is represented by the change of tone in Christian 
theology when it speaks of heathen nations. And the 
change is auspicious. It betokens the approach of a bet- 



200 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

ter age, an age of increased faithfulness on the part of 
Christians and of greater success in their work. Many 
look for the visible return of Christ to inaugurate and 
glorify this age ; but though I am unable to share their 
belief on this point, I hope for his presence in such 
power and grace as will fill all true hearts with joy un- 
speakable. 



XVI. 

THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY 
THROUGH ITS MISSIONS. 

REV. FREDERICK L. ANDERSON, 

Pastor Second Baptist Churchy Rochester, N. F. 

Up to the present day the greatest good conferred by 
foreign missionary work on our common Christianity has 
consisted in its reflex influence upon the churches in 
Europe and America. Foreign missions have quickened 
the church's zeal, they have strengthened its faith, en- 
larged its hope, widened its love, and deepened its life. 
But from this larger and more important part of our 
subject, we turn away this evening and shall attempt to 
set before you the direct enrichment of Christianity 
through its missions, a subject smaller and less important 
than the other, if the past only is to be considered. 

First of all : Foreign missions have enriched Chris- 
tianity with men and money. These are the sinews of 
war. Men may sneer at numbers, and pick flaws in our 
statistics, but the sentiment that underlies the confidence 
in numbers and the love of statistics, is both scriptural 
and sensible. The church of the living God is a mighty 
army, and, if the spirit is right, every man adds just so 
much to the fighting power of the army. Nay, we would 
even venture the paradox of the president of Colby, 
every true Christian, snatched from the devil, counts two 
rather than one ; in fact, the increase in power is in geo- 
metrical rather than in arithmetical progression. This is 

201 



202 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

the very spirit of the gospel. We are sent to catch men, 
not so much to save their souls as to turn them into 
soldiers. We are sent to disciple all nations, not so much 
for their sake, as for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. 
Now, our contention is that foreign missions have added 
at least seven hundred and fifty regiments to the Chris- 
tian army of conquest, seven hundred and fifty thousand 
men, who, had it not been for foreign missions would have 
had their place in the devil's army, rather than in the 
ranks of King Jesus. Let us now call the roll of these 
regiments and brigades, the crown jewels of Immanuel : 
One thousand in Central America; one thousand in 
Greenland ; one thousand in Siam ; two thousand in 
Persia; three thousand in Egypt; thirteen thousand in 
Mexico ; fourteen thousand in South America ; fifteen 
thousand in Turkey and Syria ; nineteen thousand among 
the aborigines of Australia and New Zealand ; thirty thou- 
sand in Japan ; thirty-three thousand in Malaysia ; forty 
thousand in China ; fifty-six thousand in Madagascar ; 
fifty- seven thousand in Polynesia ; seventy thousand in 
the West Indies ; one hundred and one thousand in 
Africa ; two hundred and twenty-two thousand in India, 
besides the hundreds of thousands rescued to a pure gospel 
from the corrupt Lutheranism, Romanism, and Greek 
Church of Europe. 

Like Xerxes' army, the divisions of this host differ in 
features, dress, weapons, and speech, but unlike his, they 
all have one spirit, and burn with a loyalty to their king, 
which utterly precludes defeat. 

Notice the great strategic value of the position they 
occupy. They are where we need men most, at the front, 
where the enemy is strongest. One Christian in India is 



THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 203 

worth a hundred in America, as far as the conversion of 
India is concerned. These hosts too, are largely imbued 
with the missionary spirit of the Redeemer; in other 
words, they have " the fight " in them. Whatever may 
be said of America, there are no anti-mission Christians 
in Asia and Africa. They have caught the evangelistic 
fervor of their missionaries, and are themselves doing 
missionary work. Thirty-eight thousand native preachers 
work the home, that is the heathen, fields ; but this does 
not suffice. These converted heathen send missionaries 
to the heathen beyond. The missionary-receiving coun- 
tries are slowly becoming missionary-producing countries. 
German, Swedish, and Norwegian Baptists have been sent 
to the Congo, and to the millions of India and Japan. 
The Hottentots, once supposed to be hardly men, now 
redeemed and purified, not only send their own preachers 
to the heathen at the north of them, but even pay the 
salary of white missionaries to the same peoples. The 
Karens, especially of Bassein and Toungoo, send their 
brethren to preach among the Kach'ins, and to the wild 
tribes of the eastern border. Polynesia is being evangel- 
ized to-day for the most part by Hawaiian, — who have 
one hundred and one stations and out-stations, — Samoan, 
Tahitian, and Fijian Christians. Thus our allies are 
increasing, leaving us free for work in other fields, slowly 
narrowing the territory not yet evangelized, and bringing 
into the sight of faith the time when all the earth shall 
know the Lord. The foreign missionary problem will 
not forever increase in complexity and difficulty. The 
work will grow easier by-and-by, if only the missionaries 
adopt the policy of making every convert a soldier. With 
these allies, ever growing in numbers and efficiency, we 



204 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

shall some day get over the top of the hill of difficulty, 
and view the valley of success. But just now, and for 
the next hundred years perhaps, w T e are at a very steep 
place in the road ; we must all get out and put our shoul- 
ders to the wheels, or we shall never pass the summit 
at all. 

These seven hundred and fifty thousand converts from 
heathenism have greatly enriched Christianity with their 
money. Almost every one of them comes into the king- 
dom possessed of something, and according to the grace 
given him, this is laid upon the altar. To be sure, not 
many rich, not many noble, have yet been brought to 
Christ, but proportionally, and sometimes actually, the 
poor give more than the rich. This money laid on God's 
altar leaves us of America free to put our money else- 
where, and so the kingdom of God is strengthened and 
increased. Every self-supporting station is a milestone 
of substantial progress, and every station which in addi- 
tion contributes to foreign work, becomes doubly our ally 
in spreading the glad news. Statistics on this point are 
meagre and very unreliable. The " Encyclopedia of Mis- 
sions," for 1 890, places the total of native contributions for 
the year for all purposes at one million twenty-nine thou- 
sand five hundred dollars. The " Carey Centenary Vol- 
ume " gives the American contributions for foreign missions 
for lastyear as four million five hundred and fifty-one thou- 
sand dollars, and the native contributions — under Ameri- 
can auspices — for all purposes, as six hundred and forty 
thousand dollars, an increase of one hundred and sixteen 
thousand dollars during the last year. In our own Mis- 
sionary Union the figures are given : total home contri- 
butions, four hundred and seventy-two thousand dollars ; 



THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 205 

native contributions, seventy- two thousand dollars, or 
more than one-eighth of the whole "sum needed, and 
almost as much as was contributed by the States of New 
York and Pennsylvania for the foreign field. In other 
words, the Christianity of foreign lands is as greatly en- 
riched by the native Baptists of those lands as by all the 
Baptists of New York and Pennsylvania- And as far as 
foreign work is concerned, on its financial side even, our 
native converts are worth as much to us as all our con- 
tributors in oar two largest States. It is to be understood 
too, that the above estimate of seventy-two thousand dol- 
lars does not include our European missions ; this would 
bring it up to two hundred and twenty-four thousand 
dollars. In addition to these expenses for Christian 
work on their own fields, these missions have directlv 
poured into our Missionary Union's treasury out of their 
great poverty, thirteen thousand four hundred dollars, an 
amount greater than the combined contributions of the 
States of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, 
North and South Dakota, Oregon, California, Colorado, 
Nebraska, and Vermont, or to come nearer home, more 
than half as much as the State of Pennsylvania. So 
much for men and money in the past and present. Who 
can tell what limits we may put to our hopes for the 
future? 

2. Let us now consider the enrichment of Christian 
thought and expiession by these native converts. In this 
particular, the past and present seem almost, but not 
wholly, barren of results. Our face is toward the future, 
in which we think we see native converts laying the 
treasures of Oriental thought, pathos, and devotion at the 
Master's feet. Why is it not probable that theology, 
18 



206 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

philosophy, hymnology, and devotional literature will 
receive substantial additions from the Oriental Christian 
mind ? 

Dismiss, dear friends, from your minds that literary 
bigotry which supposes that the only education consists 
in an acquaintance with literature, and that consequently 
uncivilized and unschooled races are a set of fools. 
Many a man who can neither read nor write, has a better 
memory, a livelier imagination, sounder reasoning powers, 
and more sense than many a college graduate. It is ex- 
ceedingly doubtful whether William the Conqueror could 
read, and most of the barons, who wrested the Magna 
Charta from John, could not write their names. One of 
the shrewdest and most successful men I know can only 
with the greatest difficulty write a letter. Uncivilized 
races contain their proper proportion of bright, and able 
men. Indeed we have Plato and Julius Csesar for au- 
thority in saying that book learning in some respects 
weakens and undermines the mental powers. The degen- 
erate Romans of later times knew how to read and write, 
but the German barbarians knew how to conquer and be 
free. There have been more " wise fools " than James the 
First. . More than one man has been able to speak seven 
languages, and never had an idea in one of them. 

DO? 

After all, the end of education is mental discipline, the 
power of analysis, good judgment, a retentive memory, 
and a trained imagination ; in other words, it is the power 
to bring things to pass. For such a result the discipline 
of the schools seems best adapted ; but away with the lit- 
erary snobbishness which thinks it can be attained in no 
other way, and which looks down with contempt on the 
man who slips in spelling or grammar. He may be a man 



TIIE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 207 

fjr a' that. Mr. Henry Richards, our missionary at Banza 
Manteke, on the Congo, told me that very soon after his 
return from Africa to England, he was asked to preach 
in a certain Baptist church. Accepting the invitation, 
he discoursed on the flesh and the spirit from the eighth 
of Romans. He noticed the congregation somewhat 
wearied, and when he was done, the old deacon said to 
him : " Well, Brother Richards, that was a good dis- 
course, but it was a little above the heads of our people." 
" Indeed," replied Richards, " you quite surprise me ; 
the Congo people were wonderfully interested in that 
same sermon, when I preached it to them a few months 
since." Open the world of the book and the pen to 
such people, and we may well expect the best results. 

But all heathen are not rude and uncivilized. The 
upper classes of China, India, and Japan are most cour- 
teous, pleasant, and talented. No boor should ever be 
sent as a missionary to those countries. Dr. Mabie has 
done an invaluable service in opening our eyes to the real 
status of the Oriental world. Yet some of us had had 
hints of it years ago. When I was a professor in the 
old University of Chicago, we had a Chinaman as a stu- 
dent. He was the most accomplished gentleman I ever 
knew. His faultless grace of manner always made me 
feel awkward in his presence. He vvas a talented speaker;. 
Whenever it was announced that Long Lann Bo was to 
speak, the old chapel would always be crowded. He 
always had something worth the saying. My father, ten 
years a college president, says that Long Bo was the apt- 
est student he ever had in metaphysics. Original, keen, 
and bright, all his college-mates acknowledged him their 
equal or superior. When men like Long Bo are filled 



208 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

with the gospel, China will have Christian preachers, 
philosophers, and statesmen of whom she need not be 
ashamed. 

And is not the Oriental mind, with its metaphysical 
and poetic trend, to add much to our Christian inheri- 
tance ? Are not these nations to bring their intellectual 
riches into our common Zion ? Is not this fresh contin- 
gent to strengthen, broaden, and balance our Occidental 
theologies, add clearness to our exegesis, new life to our 
devotion, and a new practicalness to our work for Christ? 
Millions of heathen, for instance, are devil worshipers, 
and have been for generations. Their whole lives are 
dominated by this idea. It is in the very web and woof 
of their whole thinking. Now convert them, and it will 
be a long time before the doctrine of a personal devil 
will disappear from Christian theology. Fatalism rules 
the Mohammedan and Buddhist worlds. The Oriental 
mind seems to have no difficulties in accepting election, 
predestination, and all that seems to be involved in the 
sovereignty of God. And this is the reason why Paul 
mixes up predestination and free-will in such a careless 
manner, as it seems to us sometimes. He was an Ori- 
ental, and did not see the incongruity. Now, when fatal- 
ism is converted, renewed, and purified, will not the five 
points of Calvinism find in it a wonderful prop and sup- 
port ? Pantheism is rampant in India, China, and 
Japan. Indeed, the great majority of the thinking part 
of the race have always been pantheists. And when 
pantheism is converted and Christianized, will not the 
unity and immanence of God receive a wondrous acces- 
sion of strength. May there not from this Christianiza- 
tion of pantheism come forth an ethical, a Christian mon- 



THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 209 

ism, perhaps ; a something very unlike the pagan mon- 
ism of America to-day, but a something which is floating 
in the air, and which we can hardly formulate or express ? 
And will not this balance the bald tritheism so common 
in evangelical circles, and the almost deistic conception of 
the universe now so prevalent among the mass of our 
church-members ? 

And from this Oriental world I look for the influence 
which will establish immersion as baptism finally and 
forever. The Oriental mind is poetic. The language 
of symbolism is its native tongue. It delights in emblem 
and significant ordinances. The reason the Anglo-Saxons, 
wilh an open Bible in their hand, are not all immersionists 
is because they are lacking in imagination. They are 
practical, extremely sensible, fearfully prosaic. The 
Oriental, on the contrary, asks the immerser : " Whafc 
does this rite mean ? " and when its beautiful imagery of 
the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the believer is 
set forth, the Oriental is straightway attracted to it. 
When the sprinkler, asked the same question, can give no 
explanation of his meaningless ordinance, the Oriental 
turns away. So we see that though the Presbyterians 
spend twice as much money as our Baptist Board in for- 
eign lands, they have not a third as many converts. And 
in Burma even Pedobaptists are forced to immerse their 
converts. They will have nothing else. In fact, the 
Bible is an Oriental book, and Christianity is an Oriental 
religion, and when it gets back to its native habitat it 
will be reinterpreted in the spirit in which it was first 
promulgated, and be enriched by elements of which to 
some extent it has been robbed. 

And shall we not expect too that the light-hearted, 



210 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

warin-hearted Negro race will add a needed element of 
warmth and joy to the final Christianity, and the China- 
man, strange mixture of conservatism and enterprise, a 
practical and ethical element which will give a solidity 
and permanency to the whole kingdom? 

And what means this car of Juggernath in India? 
this suttee ? these fakirs ? these weary pilgrimages ? these 
self-inflicted tortures ? this mother casting her babe into 
the Ganges? these ten thousand gods? Surely might 
the missionary say to these Indians as Paul did to the 
Athenians : " I perceive that in all things ye are very 
religious." Religion dominates the whole life. Every 
day, every hour, almost every act has some relation to the 
man's religion. And when this exceedingly religious 
people are renewed by the Spirit of God, will they not lay 
their bodies on Jehovah's altar as a living sacrifice? Will 
they not gladly suffer all privations, all persecutions, all 
wearinesses for him who loved them and gave himself for 
them ? Will not the money lavished on sacrifices and 
shrines find its way into the Lord's treasury ? Will not 
the infants, formerly reserved for Lord Ganges, be now 
willingly dedicated to the service of Lord Jesus? Will 
not the devotion which supports ten thousand gods sup- 
port one with at least equal zeal ? I cannot but believe 
that converted India will show us a consecration and 
fervor beside which all western examples of self-surrender 
will seem cold and tame. 

And this earnest love for Jesus will naturally express 
itself in a devotional literature with a sweetness and 
tenderness all its own. The mystic trend of the Indian 
mind will develop the holy thought of our oneness with 
Christ and his presence with us as never before. Hymns, 



THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 211 

too, will flow from Hindu and Chinese lips. Already 
our hymnology is enriched by Krishna PaPs — 

thou, my soul, forget no more 
The friend who all thy sorrows bore, 
Let ever^r idol be forgot, 
But, oh my soul, forget him not. 

And Lakshmi Goreh's — 

In the secret of his presence how my soul delights to hide, 
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus' side, 
Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay me low, 
For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go. 

Nor are these all. Already Polynesia, Japan, China, 
Burma, the Telugus, and Madagascar have their native 
hymn writers, many of whose productions are pronounced 
"most excellent" by the missionaries. Christianity is 
teaching the world to sing. Is it a prophecy of the 
universal song of praise to Him who sits on the throne 
and to the Lamb ? 

3. Up to the present time, the most important direct 
contribution of foreign missions to our religion consists 
of its rich store of Christian experience. "What the world 
wants to-day is not theories, arguments, philosophies, or 
even theologies, so much as life facts. Christianity in the 
life form is always most instructive, convincing, and 
inspiring. The test of Christianity after all is not that 
it is logical, or that it makes men happy. The final 
question is, "Does it actually save men?" Is it the 
power which can make men gentle, strong, and pure? 
If Christianity can do this, the world wants it. If it 
cannot, the world has no use for it, and the world is 
right. The great battle of apologetics is to be fought and 
won not so much in the study and in the pulpit, as in the 



212 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

after-meeting, the inquiry room, and the Sunday-school. 
Not by wit, not by pen, but " by my Spirit/' saith the 
Lord of hosts. This " everlasting sign, which shall not 
be cut off," this exhibit of men regenerated, redeemed, 
and purified, has often been the strength of Christianity 
in spite of its defenders. " And seeing the man who was 
healed standing with them, they could say nothing against 
it." And what can be said against a Christianity which 
does actually cleanse and purify a world? But of all 
the departments of the church's working, foreign mis- 
sions supply the most striking and convincing proofs of 
the living power of the gospel. 

Notice this living power working in the lives of 
the missionaries. See David Nitschmann and Leonhard 
Dober, as with scarcely a dollar in their pocket, they sail 
for St. Thomas in 1732, constrained by the law of Christ 
to minister to the degraded slaves of the island, and de- 
termined to reach them with the gospel, though they sold 
themselves as slaves to do so. 

See the refined and sensitive Judson lying in the midst 
of the filth and loathsomeness of the death prison at Ava, 
or begging, ah me ! a little nourishment for his starving 
babe from the native mothers of Oung-pen-la, pitied in 
his wretchedness even by the tiger-hearted jailers. And 
all this he suffered for Jesus. 

See Morrison toiling on for thirty years in spite of a 
thousand obstacles, and with scarce a convert, to lay broad 
and deep the foundation of missions in China. This cer- 
tainly was the noblest kind of courage — patience, which 
is courage long drawn out. And all for Jesus' sake. 

See those Moravians, men and women, living and dy- 
ing in leper hospitals, and all for Jesus' sake. 



THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 213 

And have you read the story of Captain Allen Gard- 
ner, of the Royal Navy, whose love for Christ and ne- 
glected South America would not allow him to rest ? See 
him at last on the storm-bound coast of Terra del Fuego, 
repulsed by the Fuegans, whom he came to save ; his 
company dying one by one from starvation, and yet never 
a murmur from his lips. Read the last two entries in 
his journal, Wednesday, September 4 : " There is now 
no doubt that my dear fellow-laborer — the last, save him- 
self — has ceased from his earthly toils, and joined the 
company of the redeemed in the presence of the Lord, 
whom he served so faithfully. Under these circumstances, 
it was a merciful providence that he left the boat, as I 
am too weak to have removed the body. He left a little 
peppermint water which he had mixed, and it has been a 
great comfort to me ; but there w r as no other to drink. 
Fearing that I might suffer from thirst, I prayed that 
the Lord would strengthen me to procure some. He 
graciously answered my petition, and yesterday I was 
enabled to get out and scoop up a sufficient supply from 
some that trickled down at the stern of the boat by means 
of one of my India-rubber overshoes. What continued 
mercies am I receiving at the hands of my Heavenly 
Father ! Blessed be his holy name ! " Think of it, 
friends ; think of it ! Oh, the pathos and the pity of it ! 
Thanking God for a little dirty water in an old overshoe ! 
And all this for Jesus' sake. 

" Friday, September 5. This is the last. Great and 
marvelous are the loving kindnesses of my gracious God 
unto me. He has preserved me hitherto, and for four 
days, although without bodily food, without any feeling 
of hunger or thirst." 



214 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

" Here is the patience of the saints : here are they that 
keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus 
Christ. They hunger no more, neither thirst any more, for 
the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them/' 

Such life and facts are, however, afforded also by the 
native converts. Christianity saves not only the Caucasian, 
but the Chinese, the African, the Polynesian, and the 
Fuegan. Among the ten thousand instances we select a 
single one. 

Kowia was a cannibal chief of the island of Tanna, in 
the New Hebrides, where Dr. Paton first labored. Con- 
verted, he lived the new life of faith in Jesus, and was a 
faithful missionary to his own people. Evil white men 
brought the measles to Tanna. It almost sw T ept the island 
of its inhabitants, and in the midst of all Dr. Paton fell 
sick. One day he was awakened from his feverish sleep 
by Kowia, who whispered to him : 

"Missi, I am very w T eak ; I am dying. I come to bid 
you farewell and go away to die. I am nearing death 
now, and I w T ill soon see Jesus. Missi, since you became 
ill, my dear wife and children are dead and buried. Most 
of our Ancityumese (Christians) are dead, and I am dying. 
If I remain on the hill and die here at the mission house, 
there are none left to help Abraham to carry me down to 
the grave where my wife and children are laid. I wish 
to lie beside them that we may rise together in the Great 
Day, when Jesus comes. I am happy, looking unto 
Jesus ! One thing only grieves me now : I fear God is 
taking us all away from Tanna, and will leave my poor 
people dark and benighted as before, for they hate Jesus 
and the worship to Jehovah. Oh, Missi, pray for them, 



THE ENRICHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY. 215 

and pray for me once more before I go ! " After Dr. 
Paton had prayed with him he urged him to remain, but 
Kowia replied : 

" Oh, Missi, you do not know how near to death I am ! 
I am just going, and will soon be with Jesus, and see my 
wife and children now. While a little strength is left I 
will lean on Abraham's arm and go down to the grave of 
my dear ones and fall asleep there, and Abraham will dig 
a quiet bed and lay me beside them. Farewell, Missi, I 
am very near death now ; we will meet again with Jesus 
and in Jesus." 

"With many tears," says Dr. Paton, "he dragged 
himself away ; and my heart strings seemed all tied 
around that noble, simple soul, and felt like breaking one 
by one as he left me there on my bed of fever alone. 
Abraham sustained him, tottering to the place of graves; 
there he lay down, and immediately gave up the ghost and 
slept in Jesus. What think ye of this, ye scoffers at mis- 
sions ? What think ye of this, ye skeptics as to the reality 
of conversion ? He died as he had lived since Jesus came 
into his heart ; without a fear of death, with an ever- 
brightening assurance of salvation and glory through the 
blood of the Lamb of God, that blood which had cleansed 
him from all his sins and had delivered him from their 
power." 

And why multiply these instances? The world knows 
the Christian heroes of the Imerina persecutions of Mada- 
gascar, the noble martyr deaths of Samoan and Fijian 
missionaries, the death praises of the boys of Uganda as 
in the flames they sang the name of Jesus. My friends, 
theories all aside, the glorious fact remains, Jesus saves. 

Foreign missions have not only furnished life facts 



216 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

enough to convince any candid man of the living power 
of our religion, but they have mortgaged the world for 
Jesus. Some one may say, What is the use? Why 
throw away these noble lives? See your missionaries 
returning year by year permanently disabled. See the 
graves which dot the shores of the Irawadi and the 
Congo. Ah ! my friend, those graves are the most pre- 
cious of Christianity's treasures. They are the pledges 
of victory. From the ground cry the voices of the dead 
in tones which forbid retreat. So long as Anna Hasel- 
tine Judson lies buried under the hopia tree at Amherst, 
so long as the bones of her great husband whiten within 
sight of the Burman shore, Burma can never be aban- 
doned by American Baptists. So long as the grass waves 
over those green graves on the Congo, American Baptists 
can never retreat from Africa. Aye, my friends, these 
are the holy sepulchres of the new crusade, which will 
take the world for Jesus. Still, still, the blood of the 
martyrs is the seed of the church. 

When William the Conqueror landed on the beach at 
Pevensey, he stumbled and fell. All cried aloud in 
dismay at what seemed to them an omen of ill, but the 
great conqueror closed his hand on the sand, and holding 
it aloft cried, amid the cheers of the host : " See, I have 
taken seizin of my kingdom of England." So by these 
seeming omens of ill, has the church taken seizin of the 
world for King Immanuel. 

And now in the words of the great president, as we 
are solemnly gathered in the presence of God, "let us 
here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died 
in vain." 



XVII. 

THE APOSTOLIC AMBITION. 1 

REV. A. J. GORDON, D. D., 
Pastor Clarendon Street Baptist Church, Boston. 

Sometimes a train of thought is suggested by a very 
trivial circumstance, as the train of thought was which I 
shall pursue this evening very briefly. My son came to 
me one day with a Greek Testament, and asked me this 
question : " Is it right for a Christian to be ambitious?" 
I said, " Yes, I think so, in the right sense of the word." 
Then he added another question : " Is it right for a 
Christian to love honor and praise?" I said that didn't 
seem to be according to the gospel. He said, " What 
does this word mean, philotimeomai ? " " That means 
love of honor." I found that word used three times in 
the Greek Testament, and I said, " Certainly that is a 
good suggestion, to see it exactly as it means; not as 
translated." 

The first instance is this. The Apostle Paul says : 
" So have I been ambitious to preach the gospel where 
Christ is not known, else I should build upon another 
man's foundation." He speaks there of being ambitious 
to do it. That is a great principle, though it contains a 
certain kind of paradox. If you were to have a lot on 
which to build a house, you would have no objection, 
other things being right, that the foundation already had 
been put in so that you would have nothing to do but to 
rear the superstructure. " No," says the apostle, "give me 

1 Printed from a stenographic report. 
19 217 



218 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

a field where there hasn't been a sod turned, a turf cut. 
I want to begin anew. This is my ambition." Now, I 
remember when I graduated from the theological seminary, 
I said, " I want to make the most of life. I said, cer- 
tainly it is best to build on an old foundation where 
you have years of culture and spiritual training and 
nurture, rather than to go to a new field." 

But the whole history of foreign missions proves the 

opposite. Do you think it was a mistake, as Judson's 

mother and sister thought, that when he had that splendid 

opportunity to be co-pastor in the Park Street Church of 

Boston, and he said, " My field is over the sea"; and 

over the sea he went ? And Park Street Church numbers 

perhaps eight hundred members to-day, while the churches 

which have been gathered as the fruit of his labors in 

Burma number thirty thousand members. It is always 

safest to go in God's way. A man graduated twenty 

years ago from Princeton College. Alexander Mackay 

said, " I am going to find a field where the gospel has 

never been heard." He went to Formosa and began a 

work there, literally a repetition of the work of the 

apostle in the hardships and trials and bufferings and 

persecutions. At the end of twelve years he sat down to 

the communion table one day with twelve hundred and 

fifty disciples he had gathered out of that new field. Who 

of us, laboring twenty years, thirty years, can point to such 

a result as that ? Built out of absolutely new material, 

where a soul never had been brought to Christ or heard 

the gospel. I just sketch this to show that it pays, in this 

particular, to be ambitious exactly as the Apostle Paul 

was ambitious to preach the gospel where Christ has never 

been honored. 



THE APOSTOLIC AMBITION. 219 

The second suggestion is this. Writing to the Thessa- 
lonians he exhorts them to be ambitious, to be quiet, and 
to do their own business. I think that is a wonderful 
suggestion. That is my point exactly. Brethren, our 
great business is giving the gospel to those who have 
never heard it. It is not our second business or our 
third. It is our first business. Everything ought to be 
subordinate to that. I want solemnly to ask you, as a 
company of Christians, does it appear that you, does it 
appear that the church of God, does it appear that our 
great brotherhood is making the work of its foreign 
missions its first business ? Look at it. A man puts his 
capital in his business, doesn't he? Not simply some 
small per cent, of interest. Now the last estimate gives 
the amount of money in the hands of evangelical Chris- 
tians in the United States to be eleven billion dollars. 
Perhaps you can compute that ; I can^t. What do you 
suppose the per cent, of contributions to missions of that 
eleven billion dollars is by American evangelical Chris- 
tians ? It is computed to be one thirty-fourth of one per 
cent. How many of you would succeed in business if 
you put as much of your money in proportion into your 
business as that ? Take another fact. Of all the money 
given for Christian purposes, ninety-eight per cent, stays 
at home and two per cent, goes abroad to give the gospel 
to the heathen. Does that look like business? We have 
only to act as Jesus Christ commanded us to act to reach 
bright results. 

I have sometimes thought, suppose that we believed 
the Bible and took it literally. There is that declaration, 
" For our citizenship is in heaven." A man pays taxes 
where he lives, doesn't he ? The great trouble we have 



220 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

in Boston is that people move out into the suburbs to 
avoid their taxes. Suppose you join those two ideas, 
pay your taxes where you live, and your citizenship is in 
heaven. In that event a great many people would 
probably move out into the suburbs. That is the great 
complaint in the city of Boston ; I don't suppose it is so 
in the city of Brooklyn or New York. Suppose those 
Christians who have that magnificent honor, who are, in 
no figurative sense, but literally, the sons of God, and 
concerning whom that wonderful thing is said, that their 
citizenship is in heaven ; suppose I say that they only did 
what is right, and paid their taxes there. But just the 
same trouble occurs ; a vast number of them move into 
the suburbs of the woild somewhere, and the church of 
God and the kingdom of Jesus Christ do not get their 
taxes. We are not making missions our first business. 

Then the apostle Paul says : " I am ambitious that 
whether living or dying I may be approved of him." 
That is the thing. I wish we could all act upon that 
principle. Seek for nothing so much as simply for this, 
that we get the approval of our Master. A friend of 
mine, not long since, was coming into the station to take 
the cars to a distant city. It was a frightfully cold night, 
and they all had their overcoats buttoned up to the chin ; 
but when they came to the gate there was a man demand- 
ing that every man should show his ticket, and every 
man had to undo his coat two or three thicknesses, and 
they were all very angry and were upbraiding this man. 
When my friend came along, he said : " You seem to be a 
very unpopular man this evening." He answered : " I 
have no ambition but to be popular with one man, and 
that is the superintendent." Now, that is exactly what 



THE APOSTOLIC AMBITION. 221 

the Apostle Paul meant, I suppose. He was ambitious to 
be popular with one, even Jesus Christ, whether he lived 
or died, that he might be commended of him. 

This is just a sketch of what was suggested to me, and 
now I want very briefly to sketch what we have, and 
what we ought to do with what we have. 

First of all, we have this immense mind of man, and 
we have in connection with our advanced civilization, the 
telegraph and the railroad and all that is covered by that 
phrase, modern civilization. Dr. Mabie told you this 
morning of that marvelous fact that the census of India, 
two hundred and eighty millions, was taken in a single 
day, less than twenty-four hours. I never read it with- 
out thinking, that if the government of Great Britain can 
take the census of India within twenty-four hours, how 
long ought it to take to give the gospel to all those in 
India? It is perfectly practicable that we should let 
every man, woman, and child of India hear the story of 
Jesus Christ, how he died and rose again, before this 
century closes. That would be business. 

What else have we ? We have this Bible translated 
now into two hundred and eighty languages, and not 
only that but remember the startling fact, that by these 
translations nine-tenths of the whole human race can be 
reached with the Scriptures in their own tongue. Think 
of what that suggests. I don't know what you believe 
about the Bible in these uncertain times, but I will tell 
you what I believe. I believe that not only was it 
inspired but is inspired. I believe the very life of the 
very God pulsates in its every sentence and its very 
letters. If John Milton could say that a good book is 
the life-blood of a master spirit, how much more can 



222 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

we say that this Book of books is the very life-blood 
of. God. 

Now the story of what the Bible has done in heathen 
countries is simply magnificent. If I had the time to 
recite it I would hardly know of a single instance where 
the work has not been begun through some direct, definite 
application of a single text or a few texts of Scripture. 
Notice for a moment what has been accomplished. In 
the year 1622, you remember that Christianity had been 
planted in Japan and had a vast following there ; but in 
that year the Jesuits, having plotted to get political influ- 
ence, allied themselves with a certain political party, and 
were stamped out in the most remorseless slaughter perhaps 
that was ever perpetrated. In America, in 1622, a little 
band of pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. Two hun- 
dred years passed. A man born in sight of Plymouth 
Rock is one day in command of a ship that sails into the 
harbor of Yeddo. He takes Japan for Christ, and there 
wasn't a cannon fired, there wasn't an ounce of powder 
spent. Commodore Perry simply placed the Bible on 
the capstan of his ship and in a loud voice read the 
100th Psalm, and Japan was opened to the world. 
A few years after, some ship sailing through that same 
bay dropped accidentally a copy of the New Testament. 
It floated ashore and was picked up by a Japanese gen- 
tleman ; curious enough to know what it was he asked 
somebody, and they told him that he could find a transla- 
tion by sending to China ; he sent and read all the transla- 
tion of the New Testament. He read the story of Jesus 
Christ's life and death and resurrection. He was aston- 
ished and went to a missionary and said : " I desire to 
believe on this Man of whom I have read." That was 



THE APOSTOLIC AMBITION. 223 

the beginning. That man was the first Protestant con- 
vert ; won simply by reading the New Testament. 

Go to Greenland. Fifteen years later a missionary 
labored without a convert, believing that you must civil- 
ize a people before attempting to regenerate them. After 
him came John Beck. Reading one day these words, the 
story of Jesus Christ's agony in the garden and that three- 
fold prayer, " If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," 
that simple passage of Scripture opened the heart of 
Kajarnack, the first convert. 

Pass on to Labrador. Eighteen years ago the mission- 
aries were about to abandon the field, when one day the 
missionary repeated the word, " The Son of Man is come 
to seek and to save that which is lost/' and the message 
reached an abandoned woman. As she listened, a strange 
fascination came over her soul, and then she went that 
night and slept in a dog-kennel. She said : " I feel un- 
worthy to associate with men since I have heard about 
this Man. All night she stayed in that dog-kennel, con- 
fessing her sins, pouring out her tears and pleading for 
pardon ; she came out next morning and said she believed 
in this wonderful Man. And after eighteen years of wait- 
ing, Labrador had its door opened by a single text of 
Scripture. That woman became the first evangelist. The 
missionaries stayed, and her w r ord was the word of fire ; 
until w r ithin a month there wasn't a place big enough 
to hold the converts who would gather to hear the praise 
of this wonderful Man who came to seek and to save 
those which were lost. That is the history of missions 
in Labrador. 

The Bible, put into the language of the people, gives 
God's own life infused in the language of the Bible. 



224 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

The Bible brings about a kind of re-incarnation, entering 
into the hearts of men, and they become in tarn the temple 
of God. We have a wonderful resource in that translated 
Bible. 

Then we have not only that, but we have the Holy 
Spirit. Have you ever thought of this : " It is expedi- 
ent for you that I go away ; for if I go not away the 
Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I go I will 
send him unto you." How is it that we can have any 
good by his going away ? When he was here in the body 
he could only be in one place at one time ; but he could 
be in all places at all times in the form of the Holy 
Spirit. Not simply some fraction of himself, not simply 
some spiritual fragment, but Jesus Christ is in company 
with two or three regenerated persons gathered in his 
name in all the individual fullness and plenitude of his 
personality ; not a part of Christ, but the whole Christ 
where two or three regenerated and worshiping souls are 
gathered together. Does the doctrine of the Trinity defy 
our mathematics? What do you think of this doctrine? 
Mathematics says the whole is equal to the sum of all 
the parts. But we know of the Spirit that every part is 
equal to the whole. Every church, every true body of 
Jesus Christ has just as much of Christ as every other, 
and each has the whole Christ : " Lo, I am with you all 
the days even unto the end " ; " Where two or three are 
gathered in my name, there am I." 

Now, I think it is time we were unusually ambitious 
to complete this work. I am not here to plead for money 
to-night. I am not here to make anybody give to the 
Missionary Union. I am just here to say a word to you 
Christians about your own spiritual life. The Missionary 



thp: apostolic ambition. 225 

Union can get on if you don't give what you can give, 
but the question is, will you get on ? 

I believe that the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, " Lay 
not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth 
and rust doth corrupt, but lay up for yourselves treasures 
in heaven," that that word is just as binding as " Believe 
and be baptized." We have separated from Christendom 
in obedience to the last commandment, " Believe and be 
baptized." I suppose if we should stand out on the other 
w r e should be counted eccentric, perhaps looked upon 
with suspicion. I believe Christ meant that as much as 
the other. It is best for us to do exactly what the Master 
commanded. I heard this said : " I have been forty years 
in India. You think missionaries have many hardships. 
I tell you, the greatest hardship of all in missionary life 
is the parting with children, sending them home, being 
separated from them. That is the missionary's greatest 
trial ; but I want to say that in forty years' experience 
I have never known a missionary's child to go wrong." 
What a remarkable statement ! These men have obeyed 
the Great Commission, and God has kept faith with them. 
I have been nearly twenty-five years pastor of one church, 
in a position where I have had an opportunity to see. I 
want to say that, with two or three exceptions, I have never 
known an instance where men have waited, and laid by, 
and accumulated a great fortune to pile it upon the heads 
of their children, that those children have not, with one 
or two exceptions, gone wrong and been ruined. The best 
way to save your money is to give it to Jesus Christ for 
the work of preaching the gospel among the heathen. I 
know of no security for it anywhere else. I know of no 
security for Christians in doing anything else. 



226 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

Oh, my friends, I am not talking about the Missionary 
Union and its claims ; I am talking to you to-night. Do 
you know that money is the greatest peril, if misused 5 
that it may be the greatest power if rightly used ? Do 
you know that what God has given you in return for 
honest toil may be multiplied a hundred-fold if you will 
use it in the work of giving the gospel to those who never 
heard it. Therefore, I ask if we are making preaching 
the gospel our first business when we are spending 
ninety-eight per cent, at home and two per cent, abroad, 
when multitudes upon multitudes never have heard of 
Jesus Christ ? I say, if we mean business, let us sacrifice 
the luxuries of our home work for the advancement of 
work among the heathen. 

And now I must close with just this suggestion. It is 
a most solemn time in which w r e are living. The mag- 
nificent success that missions are making should lift our 
heads with joy, but should set us to search our own hearts. 
I am speaking now to Christians about their own spiritual 
life. An English pastor has written a book of pastoral 
reminiscences. He tells this story : " I saw a man year 
after year gradually cutting off his contributions to 
missions, gradually closing his hand. I became anxious 
about it. I didn't know how far it had gone. I knew 
he was prosperous. I knew that little by little he would 
shut his hand until at last he gave almost nothing to mis- 
sions. One day I was called suddenly with the announce- 
ment that he was dying. I hastened to his bedside, said 
a few comforting words to him, asked him if his hope was 
in Christ. I said, now I am going to pray ; give me your 
hand, I like to take hold of a hand. He did not move 
his hand. I repeated it, thinking he did not hear, I am 



THE APOSTOLIC AMBITION. 227 

going to pray, I want to take you by the hand. No 
response. I knelt by his bedside and commended his 
soul to God. In a few moments he passed away. When 
they turned over the covering, they found both those 
hands clasping his safe key." He said those hands were 
clasped so that it was almost impossible to get them apart. 
" I knew now/' he said, " why he couldn't reach out his 
hand to me." We want hands reached out to India, 
China, Japan, Africa and the islands of the sea. Is it 
possible that any redeemed disciple of Christ has so 
clasped his hands that he cannot reach them out ? When 
I die I want to be able to say, u Simply to thy cross I 
cling." But I know that no man can hold two worlds 
in his hand at once. If my hands are clasped on my 
safe key, they can't clasp the cross. 

I beg you to be serious about this and to consider that 
I am not speaking severely, for I know that Jesus Christ, 
who, though rich, became poor that we, through his pov- 
erty, might be rich, has put us in a place of tremendous 
responsibility. Responsibility presses upon us more than 
the atmosphere; fifteen hundred pounds to the square inch, 
a hundred thousand pounds to the square inch — a tremen- 
dous pressure upon us. Every blessing, every particle of 
our resources means simply added responsibility. My 
God ! help us to understand it. "And the Spirit and the 
bride say, Come;" I read those words this morning in 
my room as I rose, and pondered them. You know that 
commentators say now that probably these words, the first 
part of that verse, point back and are in response to what 
Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, has just said : " Surely, I 
come quickly." Then comes the answer, " The Spirit 
and the bride say, Come, and whosoever will, let him 



228 CENTENARY MISSIONARY ADDRESSES. 

take the water of life." Notice what an admirable, what 
a beautiful ideal that is of a Christian life. With eyes 
turned toward heaven, with hands stretched out to men, 
with the voice growing fairer to the absent pilgrim, 
"Come, Lord Jesus." And with hands stretched out to 
perishing worlds, saying : " Whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life." 

Do you know what the best prayer-book is? That 
(pointing to a map of the world) is the best prayer-book 
that I can recommend. Get a map of the world and 
spread it out before you when you get on your knees. 
And what about the praying? You are not simply to 
pray to Jesus Christ, or to pray through Jesus Christ, 
you are to live with him. To me this is a most blessed 
idea — I am simply to join with him in prayer. When 
Moses stood upon the mountain top, and the two stood 
on either side to stay up his hands, w T hen they stayed up 
his hands, the battle went for Israel ; when they were 
dropped, it went against them. Now, Jesus Christ is 
there on the mountain top. What is he praying for? 
He is looking down upon the map of the world, all its 
dark continents, its wretched millions, its lost inhabitants. 
He sees them all and remembers he has purchased them 
with his own life-blood. He is pleading night and day 
as he looks down upon the continents. And the Spirit 
and the bride are to hold up his hands; the Holy Spirit 
on the one side and the church on the other, making 
intercession that his prayer may be answered. O my 
God, help us in this solemn hour to take upon our hearts 
a lost world, and resolve for the future that missions shall 
be our first business. 



